Wow – there were at least fifty shades of green as I surveyed the lawns while walking around the neighborhood this morning.  This followed four days of heavy rain and two warmish weekend days.

I think old Mother Nature has officially unleashed Spring.

The neighborhood lawns were varied shades of green, as if Mother Nature took tubes of paint and squeezed out a smear of lime green, a smidge of hunter green, a dab of kelly green … even a dribble of jade… all onto her big palette.  Then she went to town with her paintbrush.

Lawn care is really about the “haves” and the “have nots”.  The healthy lawns in early Spring owe their lushness to the people who hire fertilizer services or were out walking behind the spreader on a cold March day filtering those mini nuggets onto a still-frozen lawn where they’d eventually work their magic into the grass blades.  Then, there are the people, like me, who entirely pass up the 4-Step Program for lawn care, and make no apologies for it.  The result is a lackluster-looking lawn.  I used to fertilize regularly, then would scratch my head as to why I wanted the grass blades to grow longer and thicker because I’d have to cut the lawn more.

There was a Spring feel to the air as I walked along in the early morn.  I saw tree dander scattered on the sidewalks but no leafing out on those trees yet.  A couple of forsythia bushes looked ready to burst into bloom any minute.  There were yard waste bags aplenty and lots of folks worked in the yard this weekend as I could smell the freshly raked soil as I walked past the corner yards.  A welcome sight was a back porch adorned with the first annuals of the season – a pair of beautiful pansy bowls.

I breathed in deeply, just taking it all in, but maybe a little too deeply as my nose started twitching like the soft petal-pink noses on those bunnies I usually see cross my path while I am gallivanting on my daily jaunts.  The twitch was soon followed by a sneeze.

Yup, Mother Nature has officially unleashed the pollen as well.