Our garden investment has blessed me in so many ways, some I never imagined! Like today…our garden is lit up with bright spring sunshine!

I look outside and see the sunshine sparkling on the glossy leaves of the Southern Magnolias just outside my office window. I gaze across at the play of light on the newly-opened, fresh green leaves of an ornamental tree against the darker green of evergreen Cryptomerias. And I know that when I step onto the sun-warmed patio in just a few moments, my heart will swell with the intensity of backlit sunshine through the intricate, brilliantly chartreuse leaves of a Pine Bark Japanese Maple.

Who knew the intricacies of sunlight in our garden could bring such joy to my heart?

What about you? What garden discoveries are lighting up your life this spring?

Gladly shared by Betty Hanselman

Gardener’s wife

“The hope in a gardener’s heart is strengthened every year by the experience of watching green settle in a filmy veil over bare branches, watching a bare, raked plot of ground suddenly explode with busy, purposeful growth.

Hope is nurtured every time a pruned-back bush sends forth invigorated shoots, every time a languishing bush flourishes in a new location . . . . Hope is nurtured just by being in the company of trees and plants and flowers, by witnessing the relentless strength and energy of growing things.”

~ Emilie Barnes (Contemporary gardener and author in Time Began in a Garden)

Wishing you hope and joy in the experience of green, growing things during this beautiful season of the year!

“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)

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