We have rain!

It's spring fever.  That is what the name of it is.  And when you've got it, you want - oh, you don't quite know what it is you do want, but it just fairly makes your heart ache, you want it so!  ~Mark Twain

 Yesterday, Saturday, I decided to "believe" the weather guessers.  They are so notorious for putting out a 7 day forecast and I guess hope that it will be "accurate"?

All that aside, I did my usual of putting a rock in the bottom of my accumulated 5 gallon buckets to keep them from blowing around in the event wind comes with the rain and lined them up to collect much needed rain.  The soil has been so dry that when I raise a digging fork full to move a plant the dirt flies off.  Have I mentioned wind?  Of course I have. This has been the windiest winter!! Each bucket looks as if there is a good inch. Every little bit helps.

I also cut back the Ravennae Grass.  Time consuming work with a pair of scissors.  I have tried whacking it down with the weed whacker or hedge trimmer and spent the rest of the year picking up stray blades of grass.  The best for me is to patiently give it a "hair cut" and put the 6" pieces in a bag.  Lots of saved up compost and mulch bags come in handy.  The morning was perfect for the task.  It was overcast, not too windy and 58°.  It took several hours off and on to get most of it cut back and I am happy for that much anyway. 

Mulch bags and the 5 gallon buckets are going to have to wait for warmer weather!

In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.  ~Margaret Atwood

The grass really looks nice like this but still needs cutting back.
The spikes are hollow and more or less dry making them too hard to snip off with scissors. Will have to break them off as close to the ground as I can.

The dry grass needs to be cut back more to allow the green that is already sending up shoots to flourish.  I am also going to fertilize heavier than last year.  The grass really doesn't have a spreading root system that I can tell so this means (in my mind) the fertilizer needs to go down at the "core".

In the heat of summer, the grass's long blades will spill over the black edging. It doesn't have the feathery plumes of the Pampas grass but supposed to be less invasive.

The concrete bench in the lower left is  10 inches away from the edging and will have grass blades draping over it as well.

Indoors or out, no one relaxes in March, that month of wind and taxes, the wind will presently disappear, the taxes last us all the year.  ~Ogden Nash