Lawn Fuzz

'Tis the season of the snow mold.  I have a love-hate relationship with the stuff.  On the one hand it's pretty gross and it makes me sneeze, but on the other hand it's a sure sign of spring.  For some reason this year nearly our entire lawn was coated in snow mold.

I don't know a whole lot about snow mold, although I have read there are two primary types: gray and pink.  I appear to have mostly the gray, also known as Typhula blight.  It appears every year in the first warm days that melt a lot of the snow.  At a glance it almost looks like lingering patches of snow, but it most certainly is not.

It's a little gross to have my entire lawn being eaten up by mold, but it shall pass.  A little sun and dryness will make it disappear again until next spring.  It never seems to do any lasting damage, or at least not that I notice.  Our lawn is never exactly pristine, since I refuse to apply chemical fertilizers or pesticides.  We have a grub problem, and the dog pee kills large patches of it too.  I shall never be one of those people who worries much about my lawn looking like a golf course.

It seems awfully early, but there are a few other signs of spring in my garden, too.  The irises are starting to poke their brave heads above the soil, reminding me that I really need to thin out the patches.  I never seem to get around to it.  Good thing they tolerate my neglect.

I have no idea what this little red nub is - I shall have to watch it to find out.

I hope these brave first shoots don't regret their early optimism about winter's end and spring's approach.

This past Saturday I hosted a birthday party for my father, and chose jonquils as the floral decor.  Apparently I can't resist feeling optimistic about the end of winter, any more than those little plants can.