Spring has sprung

Let's talk about the garden. The warm winter and early spring means that everything is blooming early. Tomatoes, lillies, irises, hibiscus, herbs, (weeds), and the prettypurpleshrub that I always forget the name of. Of course, the live oak pollen is a bit early too, which means that instead of being able to spend time outside in the glorious weather, I have to hide inside* for a few weeks. But no matter; pollen season is short and there will be no shortage of warm weather to enjoy later.

After getting burned a few years back when an entire yard of sod up and died within a few weeks of delivery, the Mr. and I are cautiously starting to talk about maybe re-sodding again. This time, we'll do our research more carefully, we'll do it early -- well before summer hits --and we'll hire a company that is qualified to spray & treat & that will warranty their work for at least 30 days. We also need to get the sprinkler system extended to the front yard, so if we can find a company that does irrigation as well that would be nice. Again, it's just in the talking phase right now. It hurt to literally throw away thousands of dollars of sod and it's hard to contemplate that it might happen again. But when I think how nice it would be to have a lush green lawn for people to walk, sit and play on during our big Easter brunch.... I tend to forget about the hurt.

*Why I have to hide: extreme sensitivity to all allergy meds means that it is easier for me to just stay inside for a few weeks, popping children's Benadryl a few times a day to take the edge off the worst of the symptoms. I've had very severe reactions to Claritin & Zyrtec which have scared me off anything stronger. At any rate, live oak pollen is the only thing I'm allergic to and as soon as the trees' catkins stop producing pollen I'm good to go again.