Despite the fact that there was frost on the ground this morning, spring has sprung with fervor here in Michigan. The picture to the left is the view of the tart cherry that for one week a year, makes the view outside my bedroom the best view around.

Perhaps it's that this past winter went on for nine months, but I don't remember having seen such a beautiful spring before. What with my recent road trips with the kids, I've been treated to three different spring explosions, in D.C. two weeks ago with Jeremy, in New York with Sasha last week, and now here in Michigan.

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Over the past few years I've taken delight in working in the garden and have taken a few sections of lawn and have turned them into garden plots. Last fall, after getting their catalog in the mail, I placed an order from Four Seasons Nursery. Given their very low prices, I put in a order for hostas, rose of sharons, lilacs, lillies and more. After planting them all last fall and waiting for the results to show this spring, I understand why the plants from Four Seasons Nursery are so inexpensive, almost everything they sent me died.

Stupid me for not having done more homework before ordering from this nursery, because had I looked around a bit more, I would have found the Garden Watchdog section of the site Dave's Garden which is filled with pages and pages of complaints from customers who've had the same experience I've had. With a scant 29% positive rating and 138 negative ratings on the site, Four Seasons appears to be barely more than a scam.

While I may never get living plants from these guys, I hope that people searching for infomation on Four Seasons Nursery will come across this post and not order from them.

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This morning I spotted the first Morning Glory in my yard. Awfully early to see them bloom. Many folks are fans of morning glories, but they are taking over my yard. I have to weed the little suckers out of my vegetable garden every morning. Beautiful but very invasive flowers.

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I've been working in my garden a lot lately and it's exciting to see it really take off. Unlike lots of the spring gardens here in Michigan, my garden only really hits it's stride as spring turns to summer. It's also somewhat of a late blooming garden; the lilacs in my backyard are just now blooming, while most lilacs bloomed almost a month ago.

Last year I foolishly decided to get rid of the grass in my front yard and replace it with a flower garden - big mistake. I should have made the change gradually. But still, my front yard garden now has some wonderful Siberian ('Caesar`s Brother) irises, four wonderful foxglove, hostas and my gladiolas are just coming up.

I've also been taking on the task of fixing my front flagstone steps and walkway, a task that involves a lot of patching with concrete. My body is sore, and my hands a bit cut up, but it feels great to get the garden and house into shape.

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