Success in a garden is from the ground up–literally! The health and beauty of garden plants depend on the soil in which they are planted, so investing in high-quality soil, soil amendments, and the right type of mulch is important and justifiable.

In many locales in Central Pennsylvania, new homes are built on soil that has been depleted of nutrients. This type of soil will inhibit rather than promote plant health. If this is your situation, when you begin to develop your outdoor spaces we advise you to spend the money to add topsoil that is nutrient-rich, loosely textured, and as weed-free as possible. Good topsoil will provide the nutrients plants need, allow for adequate water penetration and drainage, and reduce competition from weeds.

If your garden is already established but not thriving, it may be that a fertilization regimen and an irrigation system will correct the nutritional and moisture deficits. Hanselman Landscape can provide fertilization, irrigation, and weed control to encourage healthy, robust plant growth.

Contributed by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& advocate of nutritious dirt)

This Lancaster County garden view highlights well-nourished, irrigated, and regularly-maintained Boxwoods, Pines, and Japanese Maples. These plants are thriving in good soil and have been mulched with Pine products.

Wishing you a joyous celebration of new life this Easter!

“Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world.”
~ Virgil A. Kraft (American minister, 1910-1988)

Azaleas in vibrant springtime color surround this custom-built swimming pool complete with nature-inspired stream and swim-in water fall, Manheim, PA.

Great, wide, beautiful, wonderful World,
With the wonderful water round you curled,
And the wonderful grass upon your breast–
World, you are beautifully dressed.

The wonderful air is over me,
And the wonderful wind is shaking the tree,
It walks on the water, and whirls the mills,
And talks to itself on the tops of the hills.

You friendly Earth! How far do you go,
With the wheat-fields that nod and the rivers that flow,
With cities and gardens, and cliffs, and isles,
And people upon you for thousands of miles?

Ah, you are so great, and I am so small,
I tremble to think of you, World, at all;
And yet, when I said my prayers to-day,
A whisper inside me seemed to say,
“You are more than the Earth, though you are such a dot:
You can love and think, and the Earth cannot!”
~ William Brighty Rands

Gladly shared by Betty Hanselman
Gardener’s wife (& grateful grandma!)
(Poem from my first “Childcraft” poem book)

Wherever you find yourself this spring, I hope you take time to seek the wonder and beauty to be found in God’s garden–the great outdoors!