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| THE COLONY NEWS | MARCH 2024 | 13 e Weeds Are Coming! e Weeds Are Coming! This is the early spring refrain in The Colony. The rain brings the weeds, which may already be tall in your nearest greenbelt. Take heart, the landscapers are weeding as fast as they can, often sending additional crews in to help. Bear in mind that Environmental Concepts, our landscape contractor, is also facing weeds in other properties they service, so these extra crews are super busy. Speaking of weeds, I was wondering if the green I saw in the Nutmeg gate-area experiment was the Kurapia we planted or was it weeds? Sorry to say, the rabbits got the small plants, chewed them to the base, and the weeds took over. We were hoping Kurapia would be a game-changer for our turf renovation projects. The wholesaler ran out of sod, so unless we can get Kurapia SOD, we won't be moving forward with Kurapia as a large-area turf replacement. It will be back to the drawing board for the LAC. Speaking of rabbit damage, I am happy to report that the usual damage we have seen after fall lawn reseeding this time is minimal. There is still some, but nothing like the damage we saw in previous years. It appears the mitigation efforts are working. However, we ARE noticing rabbits are now eating the newly planted plants which were to replace dead plants identified last March. The landscapers will have to cage those plants. Suggestion: if your property backs up to the golf course, a greenbelt, or wildbelt, consider installing rabbit fencing along your back fence. The rabbits also eat YOUR plants and vegetables, and then pass through to your front lawn. Speaking of March, this is the month we LAC members walk our assigned areas with EC management and Landscape Staff, checking for plants which need to be replaced. Since the planting last year was delayed until fall, many of the plants we are examining will be the new ones. Hopefully, this will result in fewer replacements being needed. I should point out that some of these plants are covered under the contractor's plant warranty, but some plants are just old and not doing well. Pruning winterkill from shrubs usually begins next month, since April 10 is the last date for a hard freeze here. Front lawns can continue to look patchy, since the warm-weather grasses are dormant. If your lawn has been looking like it could use a good dose of fertilizer, chances are you have one of those mixed- grass lawns. Speaking of fertilizer, our lawns are fertilized three times a year (once in March and two times in the fall). Greenbelt turf is fertilized two times a year. Shrub and ground cover areas are fertilized two times a year. Side Notes Olives: What's with all the olives this year? Aren't the trees treated with a hormone which reduces fruit production? Yes, they were treated, TWICE, but Mother Nature disregarded that in some trees and this year produced loads of olives, much to the residents' chagrin. Mulch: I'm sorry to report that freight costs to get the mulch here have not dropped from last year; they are still twice what we paid three years ago. Still, front yard mulch replenishment continues systematically around The Colony until we run out. If we get low and it's toward the end of the fiscal year, we replenish front yard tree wells to be sure front yards look good. Then we go back to replenishing the planter areas. Water: The water districts have not changed their tier structure despite our El Niño winters. The more water used, the quicker it trips into "penalty" tiers. True, reseeding causes us to use more water than at other times of the year, but it's done during the rainy season, so that helps keep usage down. Turf reduction in the greenbelts has allowed us to use less water than before, and we will be moving forward with additional turf renovation. We have an opening for a volunteer on our committee. Won't you consider joining us? Please call me. LANDSCAPE ADVISORY By Jan Foster, 951-698-0170

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