One-Stop Shop for All Landscaping Needs

Erik Helland is the co-owner of Landscape Garden Centers.

by Clint Johnson, President

Landscape Garden Centers provides premier landscape products and services to many homes and businesses in the Sioux Empire.

Whether it's providing design and landscaping services for the new Avera McKennan Cancer Institute, creating a luxurious outdoor living space for a family to enjoy or providing DIYers with the products and services they need - the Sioux Falls landscape design, build firm and complete retail garden center has the talent and products available to meet their customers diverse needs.

"We've found that it is important to our customers that we are their one-stop shop. They can turn to us and know that we will do what we say," says Erik Helland, who co-owns Landscape Garden Centers, Sioux Falls, with Paul DeJong.

Millborn Seeds is the sole provider of grass seed products for Landscape Garden Center's retail store and seeded commercial and residential turf installations. Helland says that like Landscape Garden Centers, Millborn Seeds can be trusted to do what they say and provide the highest quality products and services.

"They are our go-to people. They also listen to our needs. When we have situations or issues, I can call them up and say, "Hey Clint," or "Hey Matt," and they respond right away. They also train our employees, which is very valuable," Helland says. "You only have one chance to do it right the first time."

Time to Plant Food Plots
By Jason Tronbak, Conservation Specialist

Here I am in a pheasant food plot of red and white grain sorghum.

Wondering when to plant your wildlife food plots? For best results, consider planting deer plots in the early spring, before May 15, or late summer - beginning of August to late August. Soil temperatures need to be between 55 and 65 degrees to plant pheasant food plots. Soils normally reach these temperatures Mid-May through the beginning of June.

Welcome Wildlife
If you want to make wildlife populations healthier, food plots are the way to go. Before you plant, consider which wildlife populations you'd like to see increase on your land - are you aiming to support deer and pheasants, or just deer or just pheasants?

Once that is determined, I can help you select the food plot mix that will work best on your land to increase the desired wildlife population. Millborn Seeds has a variety of food plot mixes designed to yield well.

This season we are introducing two new mixes with familiar names. If pheasants are your target species, Double Barrel mix is a good choice for you. This 50/50 mix of red and white grain sorghum can be planted anywhere, and it provides pheasants with options.

There are many reasons to plant a mix versus one species. In this case, pheasants love white sorghum/milo - so do black birds; whereas, black birds will leave the red sorghum/milo alone, leaving pheasants with a food source all winter long.

To increase deer populations, I suggest the new Millborn Brassica Blend. Brassica is the term that encompasses the families of mustards or cabbages, like turnips, kale and other plant species. This high protein mix (15%-25%), is extremely palatable, drought tolerant and easy to grow. The plants provide an excellent source of energy and stay green long after the first hard frost. Deer eat their green foliage and then dig up the roots.

Brassica provides an excellent food source long after the first frost.

Double Cropping and Other Tips

Brassica planted between corn rows.

Double cropping: The Millborn Brassica Mix is a great food plot mixture. Coupled with corn, it will carry deer through a tough winter like this past one. I suggest that landowners interseed the Brassica Mix into corn when corn is about a foot tall.

Food plot placement: It's best to plant food plots next to winter cover so wildlife don't have far to travel for their meal.

Blocks not rows: A different strategy is used when planting food plots versus planting row crops. Experts suggest planting food plots in blocks, not strips, for three reasons. First, wildlife like edges and blocks provide more edges. The second reason is that blocks provide more cover for wildlife, making it more difficult for predators to attack while they are eating. Blocks also allow for more rows of available food so if a few rows are snowed over, there are other rows available.

If you have any questions this food plot planting season, please call me, 888-498-7333 or send me an e-mail, jasont@millbornseeds.com. Consulting with landowners like you is what I do!

Consider Cover Crops
by Justin Fruechte, Forage Specialist

Want to improve the quality and quantity of forage, or add nutrients to the soil following harvest? Cover crops can give you the results you're looking for.

Prevent Erosion & Improve Soil Nutrients
Whether you harvest a crop or Mother Nature prevents you from planting, don't allow your soil to remain bare - consider planting a cover crop. By planting certain cover crops, you can increase the soil's fertility, capturing and retaining nutrients benefiting next year's crop yields. Cover crops also increase water infiltration, increase soil aggregates and reduce soil compaction, all while reducing erosion from wind or rain.

Diverse cover crop mixture planted into wheat stubble provides additional forage options for livestock prdoucers.

Extend Grazing Season With Cover Crops
Cover crops provide an added opportunity to livestock producers by extending the grazing season into the winter months. By planting a cover crop mix into wheat stubble or after silage harvest, producers add high quality forage for the early winter months.

Prevented Planting
We understand that some landowners may want to leave unplanted acres alone in order to enroll them for prevented planting; however, planting cover crops on these acres is still an option. We understand the crop insurance guidelines and can answer any compliance questions you may have.

To receive the results you're looking for, consider cover crops as a prescriptive planting - certain cover crops give you one result, other cover crops give you a different result. I can help you design a mix to specifically fit your operation. Give me a call, 888-498-7333 or e-mail me, justinf@millbornseeds.com.

NSC OFFICE, RETAIL & DISTRIBUTION
600 North Derby Lane • North Sioux City, SD 57049
605-232-9556 • 888-820-4007 (toll free) • 605-690-8519 (cell)
605-232-9606 (fax)
nsc@millbornseeds.com