Thanks, gottagarden. I plan on cleaning up my grasses and perennials, too. I have one long border that is full of mostly perennials that is a raised bed that I can access most of it from pathways, without stepping in the bed itself. And the front perennial bed is bordered by the street and the driveway, walkway and lawn, so I can access quite a bit of that too without stepping into the bed. I thought I would have my pruning done by now, but the person who was scheduled to help me with it this year, has had a sudden health issue and he is still unsure if he can do it. So I may have to do the pruning myself, adding to my time crunch. I don't have a lot of lawn and can easily get around without stepping on it if I need to. Isn't that great that you have good soil. I think you are the first person on GW that I've heard say they actually are happy with their soil...lol. I'm not unhappy with mine. It is clay but on the loamy side too. I don't have drainage problems and it is not difficult to dig. Our yard, is rarely wet. I have one walkway across the back of the house that puddles from the downspouts, probably because it is compacted there, but it is a mulched walkway and it is quickly absorbed. Other than that I can't remember seeing a puddle in the yard. It has to be all the mature trees around the property that just suck the moisture out of the soil. My vegetable beds are raised too, and they are usually warmer and drier, sooner than the rest of the garden. It's such an unusual year, that I would like to try to get a jump on things. This entire week is supposed to be warm again and 60 on Friday.

Temps here last week were in the 80s, so everything started really popping up and blooms pooping open. Very nice today too. Worked in the garden this morning wearing shorts and a tank top and my favorite flip-flops. So nice. I let My Girls out for an hour this morning to scratch around and eat bugs and grass. They have begun to lay eggs again and need the new grass to stimulate their egg production. They followed me around, clucking happily and singing their little sighing songs. So cute! The Jane Magnolia tree's flower buds have suddenly begun to swell and there are three flowers beginning to open. I sniffed one and oh, that sweet, one-of-a-kind fragrance! The honeybees and Hummingbird moths are out in droves today supping nectar from the purple Henbit flowers in the grass and visiting all the flowering shrubs. I've even seen butterflies for the past two weeks. Tulips preparing to bloom and hundreds of yellow jonquils, daffodils and purple Muscari Grape Hyacinths are blooming. Hostas and Peonies are poking their noses up through the soft earth and looking good. I could go on and on... The weather radio report yesterday predicts there will be lows in the mid-thirties in the next few days, dropping down into the low-20s on Friday night. Ain't that just DUCKY! If that happens, even if it is just for one night or one hour, I will surely bid a fond but sad farewell to most, if not all, of this year's spring flowers. .I can just kiss the Apricots goodbye...again...for a second year. It will spoil all the new tender growth on the roses and send all the little seedlings popping up in the garden to coldest Purgatory, Glad I didn't set out the Cole crops and onion sets. Unreal

Oh, do I understand! The house across the street was purchased three years ago by NJ woman who was going to retire in five years. She gets down here twice a year. The front yard is beach grass and weeds--the St. Augustine died a couple of years ago. She doesn't fertilizer the lawn because she doesn't have to do that in NJ. The sprinkler system quits when the electricity goes off. She removed a 7 year old orange and a matching lemon tree--they had thorns. They looked bad because they had never been fertilized and didn't get watered regularly. She cut back three red bay trees to 5-ft trunks and then applied to the city to remove them because they died. Her place looks neglected and unloved and the house needs paint. She just doesn't see it! Yards bordering her are well maintained. My yard across from her is also well maintained. She just doesn't care! I dread the day she moves here permanently!

Yes, the ecological situation is now extremely DIRE! Currently due largely to wild habitat destruction - Humanity has wiped out 60% of animal populations since 1970!!! And yet even in the middle of our planet's 6th MASS EXTINCTION...our POTUS has just absurdly and wrongly recommended the complete opposite here! President Donald Trump had a word of advice about stopping future blazes: “Raking.” “You’ve got to take care of the floors. You know the floors of the forest, very important,” Trump noted Saturday surrounded by the devastation of the burned town of Paradise in northern California. “I was with the president of Finland and he said, ‘We have a much different —we’re a forest nation.’ He called it a forest nation, and they spent a lot of time on raking and cleaning and doing things. And they don’t have any problem. And when they do, it’s a very small problem,” Trump said. (Niinistö said that he doesn’t recall raking ever coming up during his brief interaction with Trump earlier this month.)