In life as well as love, it is a give and take relationship. Those who learn this early in life are the most masterful, most manipulative. Does that sound negative? It should not – unless you see the cries of your newborn baby as it communicates its hunger – manipulative. The whimper of your lovable dog as it needs an open door to the outside world to do its business – manipulative. We are naturally born with certain triggers. Our stomachs will manipulate us into thinking we are hungry due to certain –tell tale – signs. Manipulation can be wielded as a tool of war or peace.
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You’ve heard it before – A rose is a rose is a rose, or is it? Does a rose by any other name smell just as sweet? Do you know? Have you ever given it a thought? A question reaching high on your priority list, I know. You cannot deny it is an interesting question, admitting most of us think a rose smells like, well, a rose.
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Your ornamental grasses
I was driving down the road yesterday and witnessed one of my neighbors cutting back his large ornamental grass – If you have not cut yours back yet – now is a good time. I wanted to stop to talk to him, though my schedule did not allow the opportunity. There he was, at his front foundation, standing amongst all of the previously trimmed grass blades strewn throughout his lawn. There were still quite a few blades to be cut and he was using hand pruners. I am sure we could all feel for this guy. How many times has each one of us tried to prune something monstrous and used hand pruners?
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Have you heard some good juicy garden gossip lately?
Did you know there are different types, such as the non-consequential; hey, you – I heard your next-door neighbor is a midnight gardener, is it true? What are they doing out there in the garden that late at night? How do they see what they are doing? Isn’t that strange?
Well, if you think that is strange,
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Welcome Back!
I am so excited for spring!! As I have mentioned before, I love all of the seasons and Northeast Ohio is the perfect place to experience just the perfect amount of each one, before it becomes – too much of a good thing. This has been a typical Northeast Ohio winter and our plants have to be enjoying it – Some not as much as others.
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“I’m thankful that at least so far we have had somewhat adequate snow and rain and the temperatures have not been overly warm or too cold placing stress on trees and shrubs as had happened last year with the too warm winter followed by a too warm and dry spring”.
This season has been fairly mild and should prove to be helpful for our plants to start this spring with a limb up. Sometimes we need to give them some help.
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It is the perfect week to get any last minute stragglers, (from your fall bulb planting), into the ground before the season takes off without them! The temperatures here in Northeast Ohio are cooperating – for the moment. The ground is soft, workable and if you try hard enough you might just catch a whiff of spring in the air while you are out and about. The weather forecast mentions a bit more snow in our future, though we do not see any reason the weather should hold you up with your plantings this week. We figure the window should hold until at least Sunday.
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North East Ohio, what could you possibly accomplish in the garden this week with four and upward inches of snow in some areas?
If you live in North East Ohio, or at least if you’ve lived here long enough to understand our winters, which put quite frankly, are mostly spontaneous weather events, you are prepared for anything! You name it, we have had it – drought – floods – tornadoes – blizzards – From the east we receive far long lashings of hurricanes as well as tropical storms and cyclones. Then the north wind blows – You along the Snow Belt can relate to that! Cold weather does not deter a North East Ohio Gardener.
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Welcome Back!
Week Five of our 52 Weeks of Lawn & Garden Maintenance is proving to meet us with great opportunity during this quick thaw. It is always precarious spraying products in the winter months, especially the winters in Ohio, with the exception of a few. The weather is so undetermined in North East Ohio from one day to the next that we determined gardeners find it hard to set our garden schedules too far out.
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Welcome to week four of Follow Along with us for 52 Weeks of Lawn & Garden Maintenance. This week we are getting the scoop on poop or if you prefer – Manure. This week is a great time to apply manure to your garden. If you are a veteran to manure and its uses you may have already composted a goldmine of manure on your property and are ready for application. Those of you new to this, we are going to share the benefits of organic gardening with manure and show how one animal’s trash may be another plants treasure – This plant, in turn, will thank you with abundant crops.
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