英语播客 A Cup of English Spring gardening dialogue.

Spring makes Wenatchee come alive. Because there are so many flowering trees, like Dogwoods and Magnolias, the town becomes full of pink and white. There are also lots of orchards still; apple, pear, apricot, and cherry trees are grown in this area, so during the Spring, they too blossom. As we get more sun during the day, and the occasional rain, you see flowers popping out of the ground all over the place. During the weekends, as you drive through neighborhoods, the noise of lawn mowers fills the air, and men and women are in their gardens weeding, pruning, and planting. As you probably know, a lot of time and effort go into some gardens. It takes knowledge and planning to get the job done properly. I spoke to a local gardener who takes pride in his garden. Let's listen to what he has to say.

"I know that there is a lot of work involved in keeping a garden up. What are some of the jobs that you have to do?"

"Well, in Spring I aerate the lawn which gets it ready for the Summer months, and the aerator puts little plugs in the grass, ah, that opens up the soil to fertilizer, water and air. So it gets the grass growing; it jump starts it in the Spring."

"Right. And what about the trees? What kind of things do people have to do in the Spring?"

"Usually, prune the dead limbs, uh, shape the tree, so you'll prune certain limbs and some of the old wood off."

"Right. And does that encourage new growth?"

"Yeh. It gets the new, younger wood growing. And, it just makes the tree look nicer, more presentable."

"Okay. And what about vegetables and flowers? Do you grow vegetables?"

"I don't, nor do I grow flowers."

"Okay. What kind of equipment do you use apart from an aerator and a lawn mower? Any thing else?"

" Well, a weed eater to cut down the weeds and trim the edges of the lawn."

"Is that also what you use to cut the hedge and shape the hedge?"

"No, I use a multi-tool."

As you can see there is a lot of work and equipment involved in keeping the lawns and the gardens nice in this area.