Darell S. Bagley, the City of Frisco’s senior landscape architect, recently accepted a Merit Award from the Texas chapter of the American Society of Landscape Architects in behalf of the Development Services Department. The award acknowledges the Department’s efforts in framing and implementing Frisco’s new landscape requirements, which the ASLA says “exemplify a commitment [...]

The City of Frisco Parks & Recreation Department has achieved national accreditation, making it only the 7th such department in Texas — and the 74th city department in the United States — to accomplish this goal. To date, there are 102 accredited park and recreation agencies in the country. The Commission for Accreditation of Park [...]

Think about keeping track of about 35,000 sprinkler heads in a city of more than 100,000 residents. Or juggling schedules to manage lighting for the city’s softball and baseball fields.

A daunting task? It could be, but the City of Frisco is able to take care of both irrigation systems and ball field lighting from one central location at the Parks and Recreation Department. Thanks to dedicated employees and some nimble software, the city can set irrigation timers, identify potential trouble spots, and make sure the lights are on for your child’s ballgame (and off promptly thereafter) — all without dispatching employees to each individual spot.

Saturday, April 10, is the official kickoff for the 2010 Frisco Community Garden. The garden benefits the Frisco Family Services Food Pantry, which distributes the harvest to area residents. Anyone is eligible to participate, but potential gardeners must sign a contract agreeing to meet basic standards and maintain their plots. The garden is located at [...]

By Barbara Kessler

Winter is not when we typically think strategically about trees. We may notice the glittering displays of icicles draped from their branches as we re-stack the firewood pile and shovel the front walk. But tree maintenance? It shifts to the bottom of our checklist.

And yet, the winter months are an excellent time to train an eye on our arboriculture — to check for cracking or peeling bark, identify broken branches and address damage from ice and snow storms.

Let’s consider first those broken branches. There are likely to be many this winter as the nation endures repeated onslaughts of arctic winds and weather.

The first thing to do when seeing a tree in trouble, says Arbor Day Foundation arborist Robert Smith, is to carefully assess the damage, and be realistic and safe in how you deal with the problem. Smith often advises homeowners to take a binoculars out and examine large trees for immediate weather damage, as well as existing problems that may not have been evident when the tree was in full foliage. But he stresses that a tree owner should stay grounded.