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By Griff Wigley, on April 27, 2011, 12:19 pm
  
This morning I got a call from one of my sources that Leif Knecht, co-owner of Knecht’s Nurseries and Landscaping, was going apeshit while celebrating his 60th birthday today. ‘Tis pretty much true, as you can see from the above photos of Leif dressed up as Elmer Fudd in his normal spring attire, but there’s more to the story.
  
He was actually just excited about the complementary Northern Red Oak trees that the boys from Bailey Nurseries in St. Paul, (L) Hans Ostergaard and (R) Dan Bailey, were making available to anyone who stops by today in honor of Leif’s BD.
 
If you get out there, grab some free coffee and a cupcake while you sign the big birthday card in the retail greenhouse. In the meantime, mouseover the ‘child of the ’60s’ card for a special message, given to Leif by one their long time employees, Heidi Brosseau.
FYI, it’s not the first time that Leif and his many faces have graced this blog. See: Leif Knecht re-elected to Bridgewater Board of Supervisors.
By Leif Knecht, on November 23, 2010, 7:10 am
 In recent days, the Northfield area landscape has had a wintery look, but we are still planting trees and a few hardy customers still venture in to get trees for late season projects of their own. The 2010 growing season had very favorable weather, despite the unfortunate flooding in late September.
Because the loyal and consistent support of Northfield makes it possible for us to keep improving our nursery and landscaping operations, we enjoy the opportunity to give back to our community. Last week, we donated to the City of Northfield, 24 different varieties of shade trees to be planted along the new walking path at Old Memorial Park, the site of Northfield’s new swimming pool. The City of Northfield covered the cost of having the trees planted. The photo shows Jim Westlund and Todd Marnie during the planting of one of the trees on November 11th.
The Master Plan for Old Memorial Park calls for the planting of over 100 trees to beautify the park. Anyone who wants to sponsor the $150.00 cost of planting a tree at Old Memorial Park can contact Scott Carpenter (neighborhood resident) at 645-8501 or contact me at 645-5015.
Knecht’s Nurseries and Landscaping will donate a nice sized shade tree to the park for each $150 donation to cover the cost of planting. Most trees are 2?-3 ½” trunk diameter and 10?-20? tall. An effort will be made to have each tree be a variety different from those previously planted.
By Griff Wigley, on March 24, 2010, 3:57 pm
  It’s only been two weeks since Leif Knecht, Knecht’s Nurseries and Landscaping, won the Northfield Area Chamber of Commerce’s Businessperson of the Year award for 2010.
But already, the weight of that honor is showing on him in form of sudden gray hair and significant weight loss. See page 2A of today’s Nlfd News.
By Griff Wigley, on March 17, 2010, 7:54 am
 Local landscaper Leif Knecht, former mayor Keith Covey  and I spoke at open mic at last night’s Northfield City Council meeting, asking the Council to find a way to incorporate new trees on both sides of 4th St. between Washington and Division for this summer’s 4th St. reconstruction. (See the video of last night’s meeting in this KYMN blog post.)
Knecht said that there are varieties of trees that can do reasonably well in an environment where buildings block the sun and bedrock limits root growth. I distributed a printout of the above photo from 2008, showing that the current trees, although tilted and stunted in some cases, still did a reasonably good job for 30 years.
Councilor Rhonda Pownell made a motion to rescind her vote on last week’s Council decision to accept Streetscape Option 1 (“Small planters along 4th Street curb line, provision for hanging baskets on decorative light poles, no bump-outs or large-scale planters” – Page 27 of packet PDF) since it didn’t include trees. Jim Pokorney seconded.
I was impressed with the subsequent Council discussion. Some councilors were reluctant to rescind because it could delay the whole project. Others were understandably reluctant to get involved in this level of detail. They considered the pros and cons of sending the design to the Streetscape Task Force. Several times, they asked for input from City Engineer Katy Gehler and City Attorney Chris Hood. Mayor Mary Rossing did a masterful job of keeping the discussion on track, helping with the language of various motions, and making sure to get input from everyone.
In the end, they voted unanimously to accept the 4th St. plan but they then followed it by passing another motion, again unanimously, directing city staff to incorporate as many trees as possible into the sidewalk areas.
Nice work, Councilors!
Update 3/18, 10:30 PM:
By Griff Wigley, on December 14, 2009, 8:29 am
 Now that Leif Knecht has copious amounts of idle time on his hands, he’s ramping up his efforts to create what he’s calling the Lower Heath Creek Bicycle Pedestrian Trail in Bridgewater Township.
As the map below shows, the trail would loop around Heath Creek south of Old Dutch Road and north of Armstrong Road, adjacent to the Gill-Prawer property that’s currently in annexation negotiations for the development of the West Armstrong Business Park:
Continue reading The Lower Heath Creek Bicycle Pedestrian Trail: coming soon to Bridgewater Township?
By Griff Wigley, on June 18, 2009, 2:23 pm
This month, we have a new for-profit advertiser, a new non-profit advertiser, plus one returning for-profit advertiser.
 Back in March, I met and blogged about Phong Nguyen (pronounced ‘win’) and his new company, AhaDiscounts.
You can get the City Discount Card free ($10 value) until June 30. Just visit any of the participating retailers listed on the AhaDiscounts website. Phong says:
“Cardholders will save up to 50% at the point of purchase from local participating businesses.” |
AhaDiscounts
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 Glenn Switzer, Michelle Millenacker and their colleagues at the Dundas Historical Society are hosting a big community festival called Celebrate Dundas the weekend of June 26 and 27. Glenn says:
”The two-day event is reminiscent of the Dundas Sesquicentennial held in 2007. The horses, wagons and buggies will be back!” |
Celebrate Dundas
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 Deb and Leif at Knecht’s Nurseries and Landscaping, have a Flash banner ad this month that links to their June Specials page. Deb says:
”We’re offering Bonus Bucks, Bargain Corral, and a variety of web-only specials on perennials, shrubs, trees and evergreens.” |
Knecht’s Nurseries & Landscaping
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Interested in advertising on Locally Grown?
By Griff Wigley, on May 23, 2009, 7:35 am
 I paid a tech-help visit to Knecht’s Nurseries and Landscaping yesterday morning, and when I saw all the vehicles in the parking lot, I asked Leif Knecht how business was this spring, compared to recent years. “Way up,” he said, pointing his dirty green thumbs skyward. I later asked Deb Knecht why, hoping she’d say it was advertising on LoGroNo. She said she didn’t know but wondered if more people were just deciding to do small things to improve the look of their yards.
 This morning I consulted with local economist, realtor, auctioneer, and Girls Night Out veteran dancer Ed Kuhlman this morning and he concurred with Deb. If you’ve decided it’s not a good time to sell your house, you’re more inclined to make small improvements to it since you’re going to be there longer, as well as use it for a staycation.
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