Do you support local businesses when you buy plants, or do you buy them wherever they're cheapest? This is a fair question because in my experience plants are never cheapest at locally owned businesses.

The Reno Gazette-Journal has a good article about the dilemma in today's paper. (As always, visit the link in the next couple of weeks before the article goes behind the pay wall.) I have some thoughts of my own about it.

Reasons to buy plants at local nurseries (according to the owners)

• They provide good service.
• Their employees are knowledgeable.
• They sell a variety of plants.
• The plants they sell are suited for this area.

Reasons I rarely buy plants at local nurseries

• I'm a major cheapskate, and I refuse to pay extra just out of sympathy for business owners.
• I've had bad service at local nurseries and hold grudges.
• I can research plants on my own without depending on employees.
• I've killed just as many expensive plants from local nurseries as cheap ones from chain stores.

Reasons to buy plants at discount chains

• They're cheaper.

Reasons not to buy plants at discount chains

• They shamelessly sell plants that won't survive in this area.
• They don't keep their plants watered.

The RGJ article has a lot about Costco. I've browsed Costco plants before but haven't ever bought any. They haven't had exactly what I wanted, and If I remember right, you have to buy large quantities of bedding plants. I have bought bulbs there, though, with poor results. (That could always be my black thumb.)

These days, now that I'm not buying trees and shrubs any more, I pick up most of my flowers at Walmart, Home Depot, and Lowe's. There, I've said it; hate me if you will.

My latest find at Walmart was this pot full of six calla lilies just starting to bloom for $3.99.

My favorite locally owned nursery used to be Springtime Gardens. In fact, I worked there one spring in the 1990s and had a great time.

Springtime and Forestfarm, an Oregon mail order nursery, were the sources for many of our trees and shrubs. The chaste "tree" (Vitex agnus-castus)  at left is one of my favorite plants from Forestfarm.

The false blue indigo (Baptisia australus) below is another of my Forestfarm shrubs.

If you check out the prices and shipping rates there, you will see that my cheapskate personality will occasionally be overcome by the desire to get exactly the right plant!

        

The weather is beautiful today (finally), and researchers agree that spending time in nature improves your mental health.

A new article at LiveScience now says just five minutes a day provides the benefits. Apparently walking out to your car or to the mailbox won't do it, but walking around the building or yard will. Or, if there are roses between the building and your car or your house and your mailbox, you could stop and smell them for a few minutes!

This is all I'm writing today—I'm heading outside to make the most of the weather. I hope you're doing the same.

        

I came across these yellow-green rosette-type seedlings while trying to identify weeds yesterday. (I think the big strappy leaves in the foreground are prickly lettuce, nonedible weeds that have taken over our yard this year.)



It took me a while to figure out what the small ones were. Then it hit me—they are lettuce! The edible kind, the kind I planted several times last year in the raised bed in the background. The reason they didn't look at all familiar at first is only four seeds sprouted where I planted them—in good soil and with a drip system. Four! (Yes, I let those plants go to seed.)

Mother Nature scoffs at my efforts. These volunteers grew from seeds that blew there from last year's plants, settled in the salty clay next to the planter, and sprouted there with nothing but rain water. It makes me wonder why I try.

        

I came across a Reno garden blog this weekend that you might like. I like it because the author, Elaine, shares both successes and failures, and all with lots of photos. You should check it out.

        

Do you recognize this scene? It's the parking lot of the Auburn, Calif., In'n'Out. I took the picture this afternoon on the return trip of a 24-hour trek over the mountains.  I wanted to show the bank covered with flowers—while spring has been taking its time beginning here, it settled into California some time ago.

I spent the night at my sister's and came home with a couple of huge clumps of lily-of-the-Nile (Agapanthus) plants. I decided a few years ago that maybe our climate had changed enough for them to survive winters here if I planted them against a south-facing wall. It has taken us until now to work the transplanting into a trip at the right time of year. She was happy to get rid of a few of them because they spread too much in the conditions they have there.

By the way, have you ever crossed the state line from California into Nevada and noticed that's where the scenery changes from green to desert? It's same returning from Cedarville in northern Washoe County. I'm starting to think that's how they decided where to draw the line.

I love garden tours, and my sister indulged me this morning, showing off her potted geraniums that bloom all winter and her peonies that are getting ready to bloom. (Her daffodils are long past blooming, and she's getting ready to thin them, too. Imagine needing to thin flowers!)

This is where something weird happened. She'd been telling me how much she enjoyed the scent of her lavender plants, and she picked a flower for me to sniff. It smelled like skunk to me! She sniffed it herself and was confused because it smelled sweet to her. We handed it to my husband, and he thought it smelled musky but sweet.

I know it's possible for people to taste and smell things differently, but this is the first time I've ever run into it with flowers. I wonder if a perfume made from the plant would smell like skunk to me, too?

When she plucked a flower off another type of lavender in her yard for me to try for comparison, it smelled great, like the lavender I have in my own yard. Back to the first plant—still skunky. Crazy.

        

After sitting on her nest through high winds, the erection of a barrier next to her, freezing nights, a carpet cleaning crew dragging hoses in and out of the house, house guests with a dog, and an evening when we had a lot of dinner guests, our front porch dove suddenly disappeared late this afternoon.

We got out a stool so we could peek into the nest, and there was a baby bird! What had happened to the mama? Would she come back? What if she didn't?

I'm happy to say she did reappear—there she is above. If you look very carefully, you might see the baby (with a beady little eye) in front of her breast. Whew!

What a wonderful job she did hatching it.

        

Looking for information on growing vegetables in Northern Nevada? You're in the wrong place.

However, I can point you to exactly what you need. The University of Nevada Cooperative Extension has an excellent six-part series of articles called "Grow Your Own" on its site.

I learned something I needed to know in part 4, "The Dirt on Dirt." When using newspapers to block weeds, you need to place a third to a half inch of newspapers on the ground before covering them with soil or mulch. OH! No wonder I've never had much luck with newspapers. For some reason I thought there was something magical about newsprint and ink themselves, and I've just laid down one layer of newspaper sections. But apparently it's not the newsprint and ink that block the weeds—it's the physical barrier of a lot of newsprint and ink. OK, now I get it.

One more tip: Don't procrastinate if you're going to plant vegetables this year. It's time to get started on preparing your beds, and it's even time to start planting some crops. But don't listen to me—go to the experts.

        

Ten reasons you should be working outside now (even in Northern Nevada):

1. You need exercise. If you're like me and have trouble following through with plans to exercise, you need to incorporate exercise into your daily activities.
2. You need sunshine and nature for your mental health. All year round.
3. You need vitamin D.
4. Repetitive tasks are relaxing and free the mind to solve problems. I couldn't find a good link to document this, but it definitely works for me. (Some forms of meditation involve repetitive motions.)
5. Jackets keep you just as warm while you're working outside as they do when you're walking out to your car. They also protect your arms from scratchy branches. If you try to work around blackberry bushes or spruce trees with bare arms this summer, you'll wish you'd done it now.
6. Your hands will be warm because you always wear gloves when you work in your garden, right?
7. You will get warmer as you work.
8. It's easier to see what needs to be done when branches are bare and plants on the ground are dead, and the ground is moist if you need to do any digging. (I don't recommend working outside when the ground is wet; besides the mess, it's not good for the soil. However, you can't use this excuse very long because the ground dries out faster than you think.)
9. Snakes and insects are dormant, so you can wade into overgrown places on your property without fear. They are still dormant, right?
10. You will get a lot of garden chores done. Now, I can never push myself outside just to get chores done when it's cold and blustery. And I never seem to be able to fit exercising into my day. But, for some reason I've been able lately to convince myself to go out for 30-45 minutes a day just to move around and get some fresh air and natural daylight. The fact that I'm getting things done that I've put off for years is a side benefit.

Just to be clear, the best things to be doing outside right now are cleanup, digging up unwanted plants, and pruning. Warning: Don 't prune shrubs that bloom in early spring (such as forsythia and lilac) because you would be cutting off the flower buds. Local experts also recommend waiting until April or so to prune roses to prevent their getting a lot of early growth that might freeze back in a spring frost.

It's also too early to plant most things; research first. The fact that local stores will have plants for sale does not mean it's safe to plant them! If you absolutely have to have some color, start with pansies and snapdragons. They should be fine.

        

Sunbreak: When the sun appears in a cloudy sky for a little while, then gets covered again.Commonly used in Seattle, WA. (UrbanDictionary.com).

We had a perfect example of a sunbreak at the end of the day today. After a day of clouds, hail, and rain, I suddenly noticed the sun was shining. While I was admiring the light making the water drops in the trees look like jewels, I noticed the willow tree a block over is starting to leaf out. It's official! Spring is near.

I tried to get pictures of the jewel-like water drops, but it was impossible. They look best with the sun behind them, and of course it's impossible (at least for me) to photograph into the sun. I tried shading the camera, but it didn't work.

I did discover a robin (Turdus migratorius) in the crabapple tree while I was outside. Now that I've looked up the scientific name, I'll have to try not to think "migrating turd" every time I see one. Since I mention the birds liking the crabapples in my tree in every other post, I won't point out what the robin is doing in the photo.



Since I've been seeing green on the ground ever since December's snow melted, I haven't really been counting it as a sign of spring. However, I think the picture below shows that plants are ready to rip.

This is a corner of what I call my "kitchen garden" because It's a few steps away from the patio door and because it has a few herbs in it. You can see chives and lavender at the top, chamomile (I think and hope) in the middle, and a ground cover and bulbs at the bottom. I'm mainly showing the picture to make the statement that I have lots of cleanup work to do here!





If you can believe the current weather forecast (I'm laughing hysterically along with you), it's supposed to be sunny tomorrow. If it's actually more than a sunbreak, I hope to take care of some of this.