Garden Tips page 1
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	Gardening tips for spring:    Start with the lawn: Begin your lawn cleanup from winter when the grass is no longer    sopping wet and planting beds stop being a sea of mud. Rake your lawn to get rid of    dead growth, stray leaves, twigs and winter debris and let light and air to the soil level,    encouraging the grass to grow.    After raking, re-seed bare or damaged patches of lawn. Mix a shovel of soil with a    couple of scoops of grass seed and spread in the patch you're fixing. Rake again to level    it out and make sure to keep well-watered until seeds germinate and the new grass    establishes.    Take a look at the bushes: This is a good time to transplant any existing shrubs you want    to move before they begin to leaf out, such as rose bushes. This past winter was harsh so    many rose plants will need a good cut to get down to healthy tissue. When you prune roses    you want to cut until you see a cut stem that is all white, not brown. You may want to give    your roses a good sprinkling of alfalfa meal after pruning and work it into the soil a little.    Hydrangeas, butterfly bush and Caryopteris can also be pruned early in spring.    However, be careful not to cut back spring bloomers like lilac, rhodies or azaleas right now    or you'll be snipping off the flower buds.    Clean up the flowerbeds: Cut back the previous season's dead plant material. Clean up    old perennial foliage from last season (trimmings can go into the compost). Cut back the    ornamental grasses. Remove winter protection of mounded earth from roses. In case you    haven't noticed, weeds are reproducing also so pull them out before they bloom and scatter    more seeds. On annual weeds, you just need to clip off the tops and they will not send out    new seeds. Freeze and thaw cycles over the winter may given some of your plants the    heave-ho. Replant any perennials that the frost has heaved out of the ground as soon as    you can.                                                      continue to page 2		helpful links Go Green & Live Well Expo, April 17 – 19 at Tacoma Dome. Grow Local Tacoma blogs, info on buying, eating and growing locally in Tacoma For tips on pesticide disposal, call (253) 591-5418. Household Hazardous Waste Facility the City of Tac. Landfill accepts unwanted pesticides from Tacoma and Pierce Co. residents (not businesses). Disposal is available at 3510 S. Mullen St. 8 - 6 seven days a week except major holidays. WSNLA The Washington State Nursery & Landscape Association site, their gardening tips page Green Topics
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