In New Hampshire, spring is around the corner and it’s time to prune many trees and shrubs. But before you start cutting (and digging, when the soil warms), make sure your tools are clean. If you didn’t clean your tools last fall, it’s not too late to do it now.

• Remove dried soil from shovels, spades, pruners, loppers, shears, etc. Use water, or soap and water, to accomplish your task. Dry tools thoroughly before storing. If you want to remove sap and soap and water don’t work, rub the sap with a rag dipped in a little paint thinner.

• Rub off rust spots with steel wool or, for bigger surfaces, a wire brush.

• Sharpen pruners, scissors, and knives with a small whetstone so that you can take care of small pruning jobs quickly. Take larger tools to a pro or sharpen them yourself.

• Wipe metal parts with penetrating oil, or spray them with cooking oil in a pinch. Tighten up screws, and apply lubricating oil to joints and springs.

• Store tools properly. Hang large hand tools such as brooms, rakes, spades, and shovels to protect bristles, tines, and blades. Keep small tools like pruners and trowels away from moisture and off the ground. Laying them flat in a raised box or tool kit works well.

Good gardening tools are an investment. They last longer with proper care, and preparing now will make your spring tasks easier to do.

Rolling Green Nursery’s Spring Garden School Series kicks off this Saturday, March 9, at 10:30 a.m., when I speak on Fabulous Foliage: Year-Round Interest with Trees & Shrubs. I’m going to show some strange and wonderful trees like this odd little beech in my garden. For information, check out this link: http://bit.ly/10cjLH9

Roanne Robbins, author of The Continous Container Garden: Swap in the Plants of the Season to Create Fresh Designs Year-Round and a design consultant who specializes in creative plant and floral designs for small-space gardens, containers, and special occasions.

Ellen Sousa, author of The Green Garden: A New England Guide to Planning, Planting, and Maintaining the Eco-Friendly Habitat Garden, a practical, comprehensive, and inspirational guidebook for New Englanders looking for low-cost, beautiful, and earth-friendly ways to green their landscapes and welcome friendly wildlife habitat.

John Forti, herbalist, ethnobotanist, landscape historian at Strawbery Banke Museum in Portsmouth, co-founder of Slow Foods Seacoast, and contributor to the book, Renewing America’s Food Tradition, will speak on growing heirloom herbs and vegetables.

The Pick of the Planet will be providing plants for demonstrations, and the expert panel will be prepared to answer any questions you may have. The event is free and open to the public.

For more information and directions to Water Street Bookstore, visit www.waterstreetbooks.com

The shallow-rooted trees had been planted too close to the church for their ultimate sizes. The debate over the removals touched me, because I have a poorly sited copper beech at home and often ponder its removal or the extensive, expensive professional pruning that it will need to keep it in check. At South Church, the bare beech seemed to loom over the entry, even without its canopy of big dark purple leaves. The roots of the beech, according to newspaper reports, were already damaging the building’s foundation and starting to lift the steps leading into the church, thus creating a future hazard to the congregation.

When I returned to the site Easter Sunday (April 8), new beds had been installed on the two front corners of the property, each with a multi-stemmed magnolia in the corner. As the magnolias mature, they of course will grow taller and wider, but not hugely so. They will soften the façade and bringing some privacy to people gathered inside the fence at sidewalk level. In fact, the new landscape looks to me like a garden with a designed and functional gathering space.

Like many gardeners, my mantra is right plant, right place, so that beloved trees like the copper beech won’t suffer illness or premature removal. On Easter morning, someone who had disagreed with the Portsmouth beech removal drew a white outline of a little tree canopy where the big tree used to be and wrote inside it one word, “SIN.” Did church leaders, who apparently held a public tree forum and responded with compassion and transparency toward concerned members and residents, miss the mark by taking down the trees? I don’t think so. I hope that the controversy stimulates caring discussion on siting trees for their best outcomes in terms of health, function, and ease of maintenance. What’s your opinion?

Do you have a plant that makes you feel good when you look at it?

According to the folks at Washington State University, ‘Chief Joseph’ grows slowly (about 2 to 4 inches per year) to 6 feet high and 3 feet wide in 10 years. This lodgepole pine, discovered in northeastern Oregon’s Wallowa Mountains, is hardy in USDA Zones 5 to 9.

Do you have a favorite winter tree or shrub?