By Ron Lazzer
April showers bring May flowers. The rain we have been getting lately is going to bring on a vibrant display of bright colours and fragrant flowers to brighten our spring and summer days. Imagine your home as a beautiful paradise with constantly blooming flowers and luscious greenery. This is the perfect time to get started.
First, clean up your flower beds. Rake up leaves and debris that has collected over the winter and early spring. Some early weeds may want to make your flowerbed their new home. No, no, that’s not going to happen here. Pull them out. This is fertile ground for your own personal garden of Eden. A little work now will create beautiful results further down the road. Once the soil has dried a little, mix in some compost or composted manure to enrich it for your glorious flowers. Your fragrant friends will love you forever.
If planting from seeds you’ll have to start early. Follow the directions on the seed packet. Sometimes you’ll have to start them indoors by a sunny window. Other times you can start them directly outdoors even as early as now. If you have any doubt talk to your local garden centre. They can help. Is that too much trouble? Maybe you would rather start with flowers that are already blooming. Be careful at this time of year. Frost is still a possibility that can kill tender annuals. Choose wisely, provide generous care and you’ll get splendid results.
Every bright and colourful display needs a solid backdrop to complement the show. Think of a soft cozy carpet to walk on or in our case think of a lush green lawn that is cool under your bare feet and maybe a little ticklish too. Start by raking your lawn and mowing it very short for the first cut of the season. Add some fertilizer with some grass seed and let the April rain do all the work. Fill bare patches with more seed lightly covered in topsoil and Mother Nature will take care of the rest. Just help her out by keeping it moist on the days she forgets to water it.
The trees are important too. Did you know trees communicate with each other through their roots in the soil? They are actually social creatures. That’s fascinating to me so I say don’t let your woody friends get lonely. Plant several trees of the same species together so they can keep each other company.
Emery Village is already a beautiful place to live but we can make it more beautiful by planting as many flowers and trees as we can. If you have ideas on how to do more of that just let me know. It would be nice to see programs like Communities in Bloom or the Great Gardens contest come to Toronto and there is no better community to lead the way than ours. See you in the garden! 
Ron Lazzer is the owner of Bellevue Landscaping. If you have any questions or comments please email them to:
Ron@BellevueLandscaping.ca