Springtime in 2019 will Come sooner than Expected for Dallas Greenthumbs

Gardening is right around the corner.

Spring will be here by mid March and today for some reason, I guess it's global climate change, or just Mother Nature at work, but the temperature of our home rose to around 76.5 degrees and had the heater on earlier this morning.

I had to take the planter shelving out to put on the porch to prepare for warmer weather and had to turn on the window A/C to 72 degrees. It was getting hot in here. If it goes as planned I will soon be able to put out some house plants that have taken over the inside of our house. They are Cast Iron Plants, and they do not like cold temperatures and prefer staying in the house.

I don't know if it's just Dallas, Texas but many have been talking to me both on line and off line, about the unusual warmth of these recent weeks. So, what else is new? The ants don't seem to mind and the green stuff is growing so I had to mow the lawn a few weeks ago and already the wild dandy lions are coming out but also some native blackberry plants. I hope they come out all over where I have them.

I bought a small vase of red roses for my wife on Saint Valentine's Day, the 14th of February, and finally the rose pedals are starting to wither and fall off. But they had a good run.

I decided not to drive, but walk to the pharmacy to get my wife her medicine and was chased by a chihuahua, let out to run in the front yard of a local neighbor who was selling used lawn mowers and did not know how to speak English but I walked on, carrying my trusted bamboo walking cane just in case a bigger dog comes out and tries to bite me as I tread down the road on foot.

I picked up a few old newspapers that other residents ignored and brought them back home to my wife to read as they are free newspapers the local Dallas Morning News puts out in our area of the city. There was an old piece of wood I picked up and also carried back home. I enjoyed the walk and the fresh breeze.

I do not see many people walking. But lots of cars being driven with only one person driving and no other passengers. This is Dallas and that is what people do. They would rather drive half a mile to get milk or a newspaper rather than walk. It's a pitiful situation if you ask me.

When I reached my 61st birthday I realized at this moment in my life, that simple things like bending over to pick up a newspaper or pushing a lawn mower to cut the grass leaves my back in a load of pain. It's age I guess. Nobody ever told me I would have trouble with my back but I still manage to do as I always do, walk, get active and once back I can sit back on my computer chair and type in my articles and hopefully a cup of coffee with 2 Tylenol extra strength will do the trick.

My advice to everyone is to get ready for Spring ASAP and try to grow something that you can enjoy either flowers or something good to eat. I know I will be growing more bell peppers. I saved lots of seeds from the many bell peppers. It's amazing how fast you can fill a basic letter size envelope with those seeds!

I piled most of the leaves I raked this past Fall into compost piles, surrounded by landscape timbers that are basically treated against water rot so I can do some serious digging and pulling weeds to try at least to get the existing shrubs to grow and later think about what kinds of veggies and flowers I can try to grow this Spring. Maybe with any luck, Spring will come sooner rather than later here in the big city of Dallas, Texas, where everything is bigger and bolder than any other state of these United States. I might even build a little border wall of my own around the flower beds using red brick, slanted side by side at a 45 degree angle. That would look pretty snazzy I think.

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Image Credit » https://cdn.pixabay.com/photo/2019/02/14/19/29/gardening-3997259_960_720.jpg

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