April is around the corner: time to garden
April is the busiest month in the garden. Here are some tips.
April is the busiest month in the garden. Start off with “spring cleaning.’’ Rake lawns and flower beds when the ground is dry enough that you are not making footprints. Clean, repair, and reinstall outdoor furniture, screens, and decorations. Cut back broken shrub limbs and the dead tops of perennials. Pull back bark mulch several inches so it’s not in direct contact with emerging stems or existing tree trunks, so it doesn’t promote rot. To brighten things up, cut some stems of forsythia to bloom indoors in a vase.
Q. How much grass seed do I need to patch an 8,000-square-foot lot?
R.S., Newton
A. I would start with one bag of mixed grass seed for northern gardens and see how far it goes. It might just do your whole lawn. Follow instructions on the bag. Pay extra for the best quality seed mix. It’s worth the money. If you are overseeding an area with partial shade, buy a mix for shade. Rake it in. You don’t have to cover the seed, but a quarter of an inch of compost scattered before seeding would help both new and old grass. The seeds need to stay moist until they sprout a couple of leaves, so water lightly whenever the soil is dry for the first 10 days.
Q. There is a 15-year-old river birch tree on our condo’s property. It is 40 feet tall and the trunk is 22 feet away from our foundation. Its roots run under a carport and we’ve noticed a few bulges growing under the asphalt over the past several years. There is a slight bulge forming 3 feet away from the condo’s foundation. How worried should we be about this? We’ve asked a few tree experts who all say to cut down the tree. That would be unfortunate for many reasons. What’s your advice?
R.R., Somerville
A. I feel that many people cut down healthy trees that are growing near their homes because they are afraid they will fall on their roofs during a wind storm. This is like not keeping a dog because you are afraid it might be hit by a car someday. This is the time of year when native river birches like yours are their loveliest, clothing themselves in spring green catkins that signal the end of winter. But since I have not seen your tree, I must defer to the several tree experts who have all advised cutting it down. In the future those roots will only continue to crack your asphalt and tree limbs could damage your roof. The takeaway is to avoid planting trees too close to the house.
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