Your Corte Bella Garden In April

“Ladybug” Deborah Lazear

There’s a lot to do this month to get our gardens healthy and disease-free before the summer heat hits. Several of these tips are “Green”, using fewer pesticides and more natural substances. But first, a plea to Corte Bella homeowners. You don’t have to be a gardener to have a beautiful, healthy garden. Give these instructions to your gardening crew and they will also learn better practices. My heart aches when I see yellow shrubs that should be green, all because they are lacking nutrition like iron chelate. Please feed your garden like you feed yourself!

Go Green!

• Place your used coffee grinds around roses, flowers, and herbs for a shot of acid. They love it! • Check roses for aphids. A spray of 1 tsp liquid dish soap to a gallon of water should do the trick. • Mix white vinegar and 3 drops of dish soap in a spray bottle to kill weeds in your driveway. • To encourage tree roots to spread out and away from the trunk, move water emitters out to the drip line. Trees will suffer less in the summer heat with a wider root system. • Fertilize roses full-strength for the last time until September.

We will be switching to a weaker strength over the summer. • Fertilize citrus in pots. • Fertilize palms. Don’t “scalp” the remnants of removed fronds; they are trunk protection against disease, bugs, and sunburn. • Place mulch around roots of plants and roses to protect against drying out. Remember not to allow the mulch to touch the trunk as this encourages rot. • Replace your watering controller battery, whether you need to or not! The consequences of a battery failure while you are away for a cool trip to the coast can be heart breaking. • Move tree ties up or down a few inches to avoid scarring the bark. • Check agaves for snout weevil (1” long black “uglies”). • Do heavy pruning of oleanders this month. Cut branches about 1 foot above the ground. Start in the middle and remove tall branches. They will grow back and reward you with lush green. Simply cutting off the tops will encourage top growth only leaving bare trunks below. • Plant penstemons this month to attract hummingbirds. • Plant basil in your herb garden if you didn’t do it in March • Prune bougainvillea, lantana, and verbena.

Save the Date!

Request for Donations SOuL Sisters’ Attic

Date: Saturday, April 23rd, Time: 9:00 AM – 1:00 PM in the Corte Bella Social Hall

While doing your Spring Cleaning, please consider donating to SOuL for our annual SOuL Sisters’ Attic fundraising sale. SOuL is looking for your fabulous donations of kitchenware, dining ware, wall art, home accessories, mirrors, lamps, small home furnishings and furniture, rugs, games and sporting equipment, holiday and seasonal decorations, jewelry, totes, scarves, and handbags. Please note: no clothing, shoes, draperies, bed or bath linens, books, CDs, DVDs of any kind. Questions or requests for assistance can be directed to Carol Courter, 602-999-2790 or carolfcourter@gmail.com. Please save your wonderful home goods and items for our SOuL Sisters’ Attic fund-raising event. All proceeds from this event will go towards SOuL’s charity support activities in our local area.

Collection of donations will begin on April 2nd and continue through April 16th at the following locations:

• Diane Kingsley: Games, Sporting goods, 623-234-8505, 23215 N. Padaro Court • Deb Humpal: Kitchen/Dining & Small Appliances, 602-499-3622, 22725 N. Pico Dr. • Linda Wright: Home Accessories & Lighting, 571-426-1670, 13224 W. Rincon Drive • LaRayne Power: Wall Art (not to exceed 4’X4’) 623-266-3233 23237 W. Juniper Dr. • Denny Furtado: Jewelry, Handbags, Totes and Scarves, 714-742-9777, 13838 W. Figueroa • Gayle Davis: Holiday/Seasonal Decorations, 847-338-2118, 12841 W. Chapala Court • Marian Hoot: Small Furniture & Area Rugs, 623-760-6285, 13806 W. Sola Court