Peonies can recover from a lot but they only put up a certain number of shoots every spring depending on the number of eyes developed previously. I doubt if the dog did any permanent damage but you probably won't get any more growth this year. You might want to put out some garden stakes surrounded by chicken wire or such before you get sprouts next spring to encompass your peony. Keep it to around 18-20 inches and it can act as a peony support as they grow, too! Good luck!

I drove back from Chicago this afternoon...ate "lunch" at 2:30 at Mc D's....it was awful. I was starving and in a hurry had been hung in construction forever adding almost an hour to my trip....so I elected fast and cheap...The cheeseburger has grisley bits and plastic cheese....and the fries were just awful. I debated just getting a bag of those cookies and a diet coke and wish I had. I have a neighbor who is often found coming back from "dinner" about 6:30....said we just ran out for a quick bite to ...one of the chain places on the highway... EWWW!! I would so much rather just fry up a couple of eggs and shake some bagged lettuce out of a bad ( bad as that is) and sprinkle with a little salt, olive oil and vinegar. But, I took my grand daughter out to lunch a couple of weeks ago to TGI Fridays, and we had a pretty good meal. I had the house salad which was not over dressed and a couple of skewers of broiled shrimp...it was nice. She had a burger and fries with the Jack Daniels sauce....too sweet by far, but the fries were good and she took 1/2 the burger home for her little brother....he'll eat anything!! Yep, soup base, plastic envelopes of salad dressing and gravy, frozen entrees, granulated potatoes....no wonder you feel nauseous.... Linda C

I just want to say that NONE OF US are alone or crazy. My story is long... PMS started as a young teen and I had no idea what was going on. It eventually led to self-medicating, then to a slow and painful lifestyle of extreme addiction. Going on three years sober I'm grateful that I am now able to feel and understand my body to some degree. However (in a nutshell) since I hit my 40s - I'm now 42- the PMS has WORSENED. Not only the familiar severe anxiety that I have struggled with since a young teen but this horrible nausea that persists for up to two and a half weeks out of every month. I just started a birth control pill about a month ago and I'm praying that it works. I wish there would be more medical attention given to women's bodies and hormones and potential relief for some of the symptoms that are so debilitating. I have so many great things to be thankful for but I still don't feel like I can function at 100%, at least the hundred percent that I expect of myself! Thanks for listening. BTW I feel solid spiritually and I have a very healthy diet and exercise routine. Those help, I KNOW!! Any encouragement or suggestions welcome️

Forget testing the soil for moisture. That's a waste of time. Let the grass tell you if it needs water. You were not very specific about your location, but I've had occasion to visit SF many times on business and vacation, so I think I'm familiar enough with the climate. As they say, the coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. If GardenGal sees this post, listen to her. She's in the PNW and has a lot of good suggestions that don't always apply elsewhere. I'm going to suggest that you change your watering. With sand you get a lot of percolation, but with temps most of the year below 70 degrees F, you don't need to water that much. You don't get evaporation like everyone else. So I'm going to suggest you transition over to deep watering only once a month for the months you do not get rain. By deep I mean 1 inch all at one time. Put out some tuna or cat food cans and turn on your sprinkler. Time how long it takes to fill all the cans. That time is your new watering time. Once you do that test you have started the deep and infrequent program. See if your grass can go a full week without more watering. If it does, then see if it will go 2 weeks. If you have been watering more frequently than once a week the lawn might have trouble going 2 weeks, but watch the grass (not the clover). If the grass blades fold together like a book, it's time to water deeply again. The idea is to put water deep into the soil/sand so the roots will grow deeper to get to the moisture. It will happen in a few months. Also reset your mower to the highest setting. You won't mow any grass for awhile, but once the grass gets tall, magical things happen. Roots have to go deeper to support the taller grass. Weed pressure is reduced, color becomes deeper green even without fertilizer, and the soil health improves. I have used only organic fertilizer since 2002. My current favorite is plain alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). I get it in 50 pound bags at the feed store and apply at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Here are all the feed stores near you. Call them to see if they have alfalfa pellets in 50-lb bags. Cost should be $15 or less, but certainly not $30. Fertilize as often as you want to with organics. Monthly is fine. Alfalfa is about 35 times more effective than compost for fertilizing and costs 10 to 20 times less for the same coverage. You may not want to hear this, but I would also suggest using a herbicide like Weed-b-Gon Chickweed, Clover, and Oxalis killer. You can do that now in your area. Spray conservatively to mist the weeds, not to drench the soil. It takes 3 weeks to see full control, so be patient. Clover is hard to get rid of because it seeds so readily. This product is different from 'normal' weed b gon. Here's a pic of the bottle. If you need to spray again in September, do that to help keep it from returning next winter. Once you get it controlled, you should not have to use it in the future, so the good news is you should not have to spray the poison but a few times. The tall grass, deeply watered, and fertilized should keep the weeds out.