Dear Greenbrae Neighbors,


Happy Easter and Passover!

For those of you who love to go out in your garden, and also those of us with helpful gardeners, here are a few seasonal suggestions to help keep your property and our community safer this coming fire season. I and my crews (CSA 16 and others) are busy pulling grass-like weeds and French Broom, separating and hard pruning close-growing shrubs and 'limbing up’ trees to preclude fire laddering and tree-crown fires. 

Pulling grasses and other weeds now is much easier thanks to the recent rains; and the weeds are small so you’ll have an easier time putting them into your green bin for curbside recycling. It’s also a good time to germinate seeds and preparing planting beds for Victory Gardens with various homegrown foods! 

• If you haven’t already, now is a good the time to remove flammable plants such as Junipers and other conifers which internally have abundant dry leaves and wood plus sap that burns readily and hot.
• Here are excellent guidelines  provided by our Marin Fire Departments and other experts of FIRESafe Marin, https://www.firesafemarin.org/landscaping .
• Here is a link to the Marin Master Gardeners where you’ll find abundant helpful information and guidance, http://marinmg.ucanr.edu/index.cfm 
• And this link takes you to Yard Smart Marin, dedicated to safe and smart gardening without pesticides, https://www.yardsmartmarin.org 

In spite of our necessary and critical sheltering in place, there’s lots we can do around our homes for excellent fresh air, exercise, to grow food, and to improve the fire-safety of our gardens. Happy spring and good luck to all of us as we look forward to a safe and healthy 2020 and beyond.

Kind Regards,

Scott


Scott Sherman, PhD
GPOA Landscaping Chairman
Greenbrae Neighbor on North Almenar Since 1990