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FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | APRIL 2020 21 Spring has arrived! And now it's time to start thinking about your trees, flowers and gardens. Besides finally becoming a bit warmer, what is your favorite thing about spring? Mine is color! Reds, yellows, pinks, purples, and the occasional blue when I can find it. Spring is without a doubt my favorite season of the year. A new beginning, the hills, our plants and the trees are bursting into various shades of green and everything looks brand new and beautiful. Speaking of "brand new," are your garden tools ready for the new season? It's time to prune, plant, and feed our beloved plants as well as pull those pesky weeds that somehow manage to live through the winter's cold. Getting your gardening tools ready now is a good idea. Tools • It's time to clean your tools as well as sharpen them. • Tip: Use disinfect wipes each time you use a tool on a different plant - this way you won't transfer bugs, eggs or fungus from one plant to another. Pruning • Always cut at a 45° angle to keep water from settling into a fresh cut. • Use pruning sealer on all cuts of 1" or more. • If you see a hole in the stem you just cut you may have a borer, do NOT seal this bug into your plant! Treat systemically. Remember though, systemic poisons are highly toxic to bees, so only use them if you absolutely have to to save your plant. Feeding • Yes, our plants need to be fed. If they've not burst into buds yet it's time to give our dormant trees a good meal of sulfur, potassium and magnesium. Check with your local garden center for the type you'll need for your individual trees/ gardens. We, on the Landscape Committee, are looking forward to seeing all of the new growth that comes with spring. However, we're also going to be seeing a lot of weeds popping up, so bear with us as we and our landscape vendors deal with all of the HOA-maintained areas. There will be a multitude of new growth in everything, including weeds. We'll be watching for them on our Friday morning walks. It's a fun and educational time for us all, so join us! We walk a different area every Friday at 8 am, and we meet the third Tuesday of the month at 1 pm. We'd love to meet you. ~ Irene Becker, msibecker@gmail.com Landscape Committee