All growth on trees and shrubs comes from the outside. The trees gain girth as they add the seasons living rings to last years. Then all the limb tips add growth, new buds mean new limbs and perhaps blooms. Accordingly, the branches that were climbed by poor tree climbers like me when the trees were 20 feet tall did not move up the tree that grew to 60 feet tall, rather, new branches formed, season by season.

Grass on the other hand is a called a basal growing plant because the growth bud is very close to being under soil level. For example, if the tree in the example above grew basally from 20 to 60 feet, all new growth and wood would be grown from the soil level and those original limbs would still be 20 feet from the top.

Why does this matter?

Because, when you look around your lawn and see spots that are very green and lush and others not, that is just where the dogs peed this winter and the grass is responding to a super feeding. What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger and, in the winter, urine doesn’t burn like in the summer so you get a reversed reaction. The grass we come out of winter with never greens up, rather new grass grows subsoil, and pushes up the old so we can cut it off. I’m happy to report that grass cutting has officially started and note the first few cuts smell really good.

Let's continue with some date specific fun:

Saint Patrick's Day

• If you find a four leaf clover before Jay kills it, make sure you don't iron it.
• You don't want to press your luck.
  

Bracket Time

• What do you call it when the Cinderella team busts your bracket?
• March Sadness!

Spring is Here

• How excited was Jay about the arrival of spring?
  So excited that he wet his plants.
  

Melissa and Jerry, my daughter and son-in-law, were up from their home in Tennessee for my birthday earlier this month. While I enjoyed their visit very much, don’t tell them but the best part was meeting my new Grand Dog, Sniper.

I know that kids and cats have a place in the world but for my life, it's always been about the dogs. First thing that a good sniper has to do is be able to quietly observe, and you will note that he has it down pretty perfectly. What a beautiful little fellow and so much fun to be around. Fortunately, this was a photo because a movie might have revealed how fast Sniper can go from observing to conquering!!

“I was just hanging around the shelter when Mom showed up, don’t know what took her so long to find me but I’m sure glad she finally did. Mom just grabbed me up and took me home to meet my fun brother Ranger and the grumpy old brother Max.”

“Ranger is one of my brothers and before I came around, he was pretty bored because big brother doesn’t want much to do with either of us and he was just stuck alone. Ranger is an 80-pound pit bull and I’m only 17 pounds today but I have ways to equalize that and inside, I’m 20 pounds bigger than he. Now, nothing is better than wrestling and I’ve learned how not to hurt him bad although he complains something about puppy teeth but this morning, I learned something better.”

Note to reader, Melissa and Jerry have a bunch of land in Tennessee and the property also backs up on the Cherokee forest and Ranger and Max know where they can go and where not. They never stray further than a loud bellow of "Treats" will bring them back. In fact, sometimes they just hide to get those treats, Moms can scare easy you know.

“This morning mom left us out at 5:30 and just over the next hill is one of Rangers girlfriends and he thought it was a great time to introduce his new brother to her and I agreed so off we went. Well maybe it wasn’t that great of an idea because not only did I not meet his lady friend but mom got pretty upset with me. Good thing Ranger could still hear her bellowing "Treat" over my barking or it would not have gone good for us. Mom was pretty upset.”

I want to thank Melissa and Jerry for visiting with their kid and sharing the puppy joy. Being the grandparent continues to be a blessing.