Ville Platte Rotary Club members welcome Grasers to weekly meeting

February 18, Meeting
Rotarian Camille Fontenot welcomed Randal and Annette Graser with Landscape Creations to the February 18, meeting of the Ville Platte Rotary Club. Randal gave a program on lanscaping tips and advice. He said if one decides to do landscaping themselves, they should have a plan in place before starting the project. He said not to buy everything you see and know the difference between evergreen and the north, south, east and west sides of the planned area to be landscaped. He added that color is expensive and the varigation of the plant itself is beautiful. He noted that the camelias have not beeb bothered by the recent ice/snow winter weather. He encouraged gardeners to be careful with cutting back their blooms and plants because it is still early and it could get cold again before spring arrives. Randal said that cutting back as soon as plants bloom promotes healthy and more growth and more blooms if done properly. He added that black soot seen on bark/landscaping could cause problems if not taken care of. He stated that crops and plants should do well this year due to the loose soil because of the winter weather. When watering plants, he noted that spreading mulch and squeezing the dirt to form a ball is a sign of enough water, if the plants have more than that, they can begin to rot. He added that the best time to water plants is early in the morning in order to keep the plants wet throughout the day and prevent disease from spreading. Randal then discussed fertilizers, noting that for small gardens, he recommends time release fertilizer to granule. However, he said that granule fertilizer is more cost effective than time release for larger gardens, landscaping. He also said that in the event of a lot of rain, time release fertilizer evaporates quicker than pellet fertilizer. Randal also gave tips on mulch, noting that cypress is the best but it expensive and hard to find. He uses cypress because it is heavy and works well. He does not recommend pine because ants and termites love it. He recommended a thickness of at least three to four inches of mulch in order to help hold down moisture and keep the temperature approximately 12 degrees cooler on the hottest summer days.