Issue link: https://imageup.uberflip.com/i/475879
K. Hovnanian has started clearing and development of the fourth trail at Four Seasons. This trail (E) is under the Edison power lines in an easement that bisects our community. It stretches approximately 1,000 yards from Highland Springs Road northwest to Four Seasons Circle. The 16 power poles (85 yards apart) will have trail markers from south to north. Construction will begin in the middle near Trail C and then move north as house construction is completed. The southern section will be developed with Phase E in coming years. Promises of a wet winter dried up with the start of a new year. Our January total of 1/3 inch was based on two sprinkles 14 days apart. San Francisco experienced their first ever recorded January with no rain. Snow pack in California is 25 percent of its normal level for end of January. Meanwhile our plant life is stirring with longer days and warming soil and the generous rainfall of December has now rained into the Pacific Ocean. The state-wide irrigation restrictions of two times per week extend through April. Prospects of relief are grim and currently imposition of three-times-per-week irrigation throughout the hot summer months is very real. Our landscapers will be greatly challenged to maintain our lush look here at Four Seasons. A forecast of 20 percent precipitation (or 80 percent no precipitation) does not warrant shutting off 2,200 sprinkler stations on a scheduled irrigation day. If the rain does not fall or is very light our plants will undergo another four days without water. Many will not survive this rationing so we are forced to maintain our scheduled watering even while it may be raining. Regardless of the amount of rainfall and irrigation one plant type we can count on to survive is the weed. To humans this is any unwanted plant. To some of Mother Nature's other lifeforms these are a food source. They are classified into three main groups: 1. Broadleaf: herbaceous (non-woody) plants typically producing noticeable flowers. Leaves are often broad with netted veins, but may also be narrow and veinless. 2. Grasslike: herbaceous (non-woody) plants lacking noticeable flowers. The leaves are ribbon-like with parallel veins, and are often tightly rolled. 3. Woody: Trees, shrubs, and sub-shrubs with obvious woody stems that persist year after year. In March they begin their annual race to propagate their civilization. Usually they are the first out of the ground and many grow exponentially overnight. An area appearing weed-free at sunset seems untended by dawn with 12 to 18 inch weeds. Our landscapers often bring in a posse of weed wranglers to round up and remove these unwanted critters. A pre-emergent chemical was sprayed on common areas and front yards earlier this year to reduce germination but these tough little guys are survivalists. ~ Leonard Tavernetti 18 FOUR SEASONS BREEZE | MARCH 2015 Landscape Committee Edison easement