“There are no days in the whole round year more delicious than those which often come to us in the latter half of April… The sun trembles in his own soft rays… The grass in the meadow seems all to have grown green since yesterday… though there is warmth enough for a sense of luxury, there is coolness enough for exertion.”
~Thomas Wentworth Higginson (American minister, author, abolitionist, and soldier; 1823 – 1911)
Gardener’s wife
For many years, the team at Hanselman Landscape have been shaping and nurturing a variety of specialty pines at our nursery in Manheim, Pennsylvania. Now, these distinguished pines are gracing residential and commercial gardens around the country–from Austin, Texas to Long Island, New York, and even at the renowned Ring Stone Sculpture in front of the Sloan School of Management at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Most recently, our team delivered two specimen Japanese Black Pines to the Japanese-owned Kitano Hotel in Manhattan, New York. Here they extend their windswept branches in welcome, bringing joy to guests and passers-by alike.
Gladly shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife
“April is a time of wonder, when the spring peepers emerge from hibernation and begin to call, when robins and redwing blackbirds come back north, and when new green life appears. That is one of the greatest of all wonders, the growth of a bud and a leaf from a seed or a root that has lain dormant in the earth all winter.”
~Hal Borland (American writer, journalist, and naturalist; 1900 – 1978)
Joyfully shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& April celebrant)
Creating and maintaining your beautiful garden is a long process that takes a lot of thoughtful planning and diligent upkeep. However, one essential aspect of garden care is often overlooked: protection. During the growing season (March to September), diseases and bug infestations can wreak havoc on the plants in which you have invested so much.
While many people can easily identify pests such as the Lantern Fly and Japanese Beetle, many other insects and diseases are much more deadly and require a trained eye to recognize. Here at Hanselman Landscape, our Penn State-certified applicators offer free Plant Health consultations involving a survey of the plants on your property. Issues like scale (a bug infestation that sucks the sap out of plants, effectively bleeding them dry) or foliar diseases (fungal infections causing stunted growth, premature leaf drop, and even death) can be discovered during these surveys and a treatment plan can be created. Don’t wait until the health of your plants suffers. Schedule a visit with us by calling our office (717-653-1273) or our Garden Care Manager (717-333-5784) and give your garden the protection it deserves.
Submitted by Julia Kramer
Garden Care Technician
Photo credit for image of “Peach Scale”: lucidcentral.org
“It’s spring! Farewell
To chills and colds!
The blushing, girlish
World unfolds
Each flower, leaf
And blade of sod—
Small letters sent
To her from God.”
~John Updike (American writer, poet, and literary critic; 1932 – 2009)
Gladly shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& spring letter recipient)
A few years ago while I was visiting some clients, I saw what looked like black paint dots all over their white porch and siding, as high up as 10 feet. I wondered how the “paint spots” got there. As I found out, it was NOT paint.
I later discovered the culprit was Artillery fungus, a side effect of mulching with conventional, shredded hardwood mulches, dyed or natural. The fungus is ubiquitous in garden center hardwood mulches. In these hardwood mulches, the fungus produces masses of small grayish balls that emerge after a few months and burst open, releasing their contents. The contents are black, sticky spore packets. They can be shot up to distances of 6 meters and stick to whatever they hit. Yuck! Furthermore, they don’t come off on their own. Although they don’t harm plants, walls and decks are another matter.
I have never observed this phenomenon with any of the Pine mulch products, such as Pine straw (photo below right) or Pine bark mulch. Resistance to fungi is just one of the many reasons we find Pine mulch products to be much better choices for healthy, beautiful gardens!
–Contributed by Sean Kramer
HL Garden Care Manager
