I mentioned last week that I moved and our new house has a lawn that is more moss than grass. This week, I moved our camper from the old house to new and found that the lawn is quite hard as well. The wheels on our trailer didn’t even make a dent in the moss. 

My new lawn seems more like a driveway, so I will definitely have my work cut out. Speaking of work, at my age, I’m great for half a day or so, still working seven days a week this time of year, but usually leaving the store around one o’clock to go home and do some light chores, mowing the lawn, planting something, etc... Well with moving for the first time in twenty-six years, I work at the store for half a day and then move half a day. This has not been approved by my back. I’m not a spring chicken anymore and I feel it. At least all the big stuff is moved but there are still lots of loose ends, like two lawn mowers, a chipper, log splitter, rototiller, seven wall storage units, etc, etc. 

The problem is that I can’t move those things until I clear the fifty or so boxes still left in the new garage out. Some things are easy - a box of solar path lights, just put them out along the sidewalk or a box of towels that goes into the linen closet. But then there are the hard boxes, pots and pans, dishes, serving platters and right now we have about two-thirds of the cabinet space in the new house compared to the old, so I have to get a little creative. It takes some time, but it is getting done. I want to get all this inside stuff done so that I can start enjoying the outside like so many of our customers this week. 

As soon as the weather turned nice last Saturday the rush was on and with the nice weather all week the rush continues. Trees, shrubs, flowers and vegetables have been flying out the door. Now just because the weather is great now doesn’t mean that everything is ready and waiting for sale. We have many items coming in this week, like roses, that we haven’t even had yet this year. Certain plants take longer in the spring to sprout out and become saleable. Altheas, otherwise known as Rose of Sharon, doesn’t start to leaf out until Memorial Day Weekend as these plants don’t flower out until late July into August. Large leaf hydrangeas, the blue, red, pink and purple flowering ones, are coming in for the first time this week as they too are slower growers. Even the ones we got this week had a little help from being in a cold house all winter long which gives them a jumpstart in the spring. 

If these were in your garden they would be just starting to swell some leaf buds right now. Talking buds right now, if it seems your allergies are acting up more than normal, you are correct. Because of the extended cold period this spring and then suddenly becoming nice, many of the spring flowering trees are all flowering at once and because of the milder winter, the trees have roughly ten to fifteen percent more blooms on them this year. That all leads to more pollen in the air and more sneezy days. I have written about it before, but local bee pollen is one of the greatest allergy relievers there is. Local honey taken daily can give some relief as well, but pollen works much faster and gives longer protection. 

Last but certainly not least, Sunday is Mother’s Day and right now all our hanging baskets are on sale. Not only will you save five dollars on every hanging basket, but we are also raising money for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Two dollars from every ten inch hanging basket and five dollars from every twelve inch hanging basket will be donated to St Jude. This year you can get something special for the mom in your life, but more importantly, you can help a mom that you will never know, whose child is a patient at St. Jude.