Serrano Park Community By Patty Cheah
August has been a busy month for landscapers. Harvest has been working diligently over the past couple of months managing their normal schedule with a few additional work items:
- Mulch has just been installed throughout the community to help keep the soil moist and reduce weeds. In addition, Harvest has sprayed herbicide throughout the community.
- There has been, and will continue to be into the fall, an abundance of leaves and seeds on the ground. Many would say the Carrotwoods are the worst, others say it’s the Eucalyptus or the Pepper trees. Whatever the case, for several month’s trees will drop an excessive volume of leaves and seeds onto our streets and sidewalks. Please know that our landscape company is doing their best cleaning up this debris. They have a schedule of mowing, edging, plant trimming and debris cleanup every day of the week for each section of our community. When an area is cleaned up, it will be a couple of weeks before they return to that same area. Please do not contact Keystone for a cleanup. Harvest will get to it on their normal schedule.
- Be aware of fallen tree limbs. When branches get heavy with the spring and summer growth of leaves and seeds, some will self-prune. This is especially common in Eucalyptus trees, but any tree can shed a limb. In addition, and with our ongoing drought, trees may shed branches if they are stressed or diseased which put a strain on the resources of the tree.
- Irrigation is a full-time job in every community, and ours is no exception. Harvest has an excellent staff to supports all our irrigation needs. You will frequently see their small truck around our community. If you see a broken sprinkler, water leak, or sprinklers on outside their 8pm-8am watering cycle, please report to Keystone.
- Fire Ants have been a challenge this year. The landscape crew has been keeping an eye out for nests and exterminating as soon as possible. If you see a nest, please report it to Keystone.
- Harvest has trimmed the plant material in the Sendero Channel (pathway between Sendero and Arboleda) and along Tranquillo, down to 6-8 inches to allow for horizontal growth. We will monitor these areas for adequate re-growth.
At the August 26 board meeting, the following landscape proposals were approved:
- Install new plant material on the corner of Sombra & 21096 Matorral.
- Install new plant material on the corner of Sombra & 24922 Verraneo.
- Install new plant material on the corner of Sombra & 24892 Bancal.
Fall tree trimming is coming soon. Many trees will have ‘crown thinning’, which is the selective removal of live branches to reduce crown density. Thinning allows wind to pass through or into the pruned section of the crown, which can temporarily improve durability in the winds and allow sunlight to penetrate to the ground. A second method which will be used is called ‘selective tip back’ and is done on specific tree types such as Pine and Carrotwood trees. This method is used to enhance the structure of the tree by removing cross-branches (branches touching each other) and removing low lying and horizontal branches. The community will be notified when this tree trimming has been scheduled.