there's a good chance that, after two weeks of Spring-like temps and widespread bud-swell, we might have Winter back for another visit. Storms keep rolling across the country, dumping snow, rain, sleet and tornadoes across a thousand mile wide path. March is highly-unpredictable; early to mid-April even more so. The rain is always welcome; snow and ice aren't. Yeah, like there's anything we can do about it. About 50% of our fresh, Spring nursery stock has arrived: rare and unusual conifers, 100+ varieties of japanese maples, deciduous and evergreen trees, shrubs, perennials, ornamental grasses et al. Anything just breaking bud or pushing new growth is temporarily sheltered; everything else is on display. Most plants are now poking through the sun-warmed ground. I now have a crew replacing dead plants from last season in our customers landscapes, another getting ready to do maintenance and a third still working around the complex, but also getting ready to start 37+ landscape jobs already on the books. We're already booked until August. It's going to be another hectic and busy season. Everyone here is anxious to get started, right after the ninth annual Open House, tomorrow, Saturday, April 10th. I thrive on the jazz. Catching Up. It's a stormy, rainy Easter Sunday morning and the switch over day to Daylight Savings Time, so I'm sleeping in. After kicking into the Spring-Summer-Fall Hours mode this past week, all of us are tired. Saturday, we were swamped. With three customer landscape meeting at various locations, I tried to fill in as best I could, but with hundreds of people through, it was a madhouse. I also had a busy last week, meeting with 12 homeowners on site; it'll get even busier very soon now. My sister, Becky is in from San Francisco helping us get the Garden Center in shape for the season. Although SF has probably the best restaurants in the world, I'll be taking her to some of the best bistros and eateries — mostly Italian — in this area, to get her take on the culinary scene around here. Local Garden Art. One of our local papers, The York Daily Record, did a nice piece on the up-and-coming thing: garden art. We had several mentions and pictures of the unusual sculptures which we sell, as well as the tacky shit — sold by other garden centers only. I've never sold gazing balls or flamingos; they're junk. Unfortunately, the printed pics didn't make it onto YDRs website story. Beneficial Insects. This year, instead of using toxic chemicals to control aphids and whitefly, we're trying IPM (Integrated Pest Management). I hate to use so many chemicals and introduce toxins into the ground water. The theory behind IPM is that there are both predators and prey in the insect kingdom and combining the correct predators with prey equals food for the predators and end-of-the-road for the prey. Ladybugs (1/8th inch), Lacewing (3/8th inch) and Trichogama Wasp (1/50th inch) are the three we're now using. Also, Praying Mantis is another really good predator. Ladybugs eat both aphids and whitefly outright; the wasp and lacewing actually inject eggs into the thorax/ abdomen of the pests and when they hatch-out — remember the "Alien" erupting through that guys chest during dinner? — the newly-hatched insects blow the pests apart. Simple and clean. All Ladybugs, Lacewing and Wasp lay eggs on the plant leaves and continue to hatch out all Summer, thereby replacing themselves as pest insects multiply. It's a beautiful ballet of bugs, once you understand the mechanics. Kunafin is our supplier. They deliver a good product. The local York Daily Record is doing a story on our use of beneficials; apparently we're the pioneers in this area. Go figure. Huge Mistake, Part 3. Now that we're there, we have to support the troops, but we don't have to support the lying, felon, rapist, piece-of-shit Clinton in his dirty little war. Nationwide, support is growing. Clinton is a sociopath trying to redefine what pitiable pieces are left of his impeachment-tarnished legacy by creating a war where none should have existed. He's mentally ill and running amok with American lives and risking WW3. He's a f*cking psycho, obsessed with making a name for himself in the history books. Having a clear idea of why we're there would be a good idea. I'll support the troops; I'll continue to hate and despise Clinton for the lack of morals and ethics he stands for, and the 100 cowardly sons and daughters of bitches in The US Senate who failed in their sworn duty to convict him. Wagging the dog just once too often has gotten the US embroiled in a civil war in a country we have no business being in, just to deflect attention from the Chinagate scandal, also created by the traitorous bastard Clinton. And it looks like ground troops are next to be sent into the mess. Clinton the psycho, moron's dirty little war has already cost America 19 American lives; denied by the lying, rapist, criminal bastard Clinton and NATO. How many more thousands will die if we send in ground troops? Plenty. The current cost estimate is now between $2-4billion; we just should have written a check for $1.5billion and skipped the war. I sincerely hope that all the liberal scumbag idiots who voted for the Clinton lowlife once and twice have nightmares about and see each and every dead American face in anguish, every night for the rest of their pathetic lives. Burn in hell, lib-Dem filth. The first evidence is now emerging which shows that the highest levels of the Chinese government sought to influence the U.S. election process. It'll all come out in torrents soon. We're even being portrayed as the world's newest enemy by the stinking shithead, commie, Russian scum. Isn't that a hot one? It'll be a long war. Lay in a good supply of pasta and vino; I'll provide the pesto sauce et al. Die Racist, Die. Why is Calypso Louie Farra-Con-Man taking so long to die and rid the world of another piece of lowlife, racist shit? Who knows; we're just hoping that the filthy, con-artist, scumbag dies soon, but not without some major pain and suffering. That's a payback for all the ills he's visited upon the world. Aw Gee, Sorry To Hear That. Perhaps arguably the most racist, bigoted piece-of-shit is reported to improving in his battle with prostate cancer. Yet I was hoping to read the obit by now. Too bad. Calypso Louie Farra-Con-Man is on the mend. It's truly a pity that innocent children die as babes and filth like Calypso Louie live into their 60s. Plus, the subhuman, lowlife, filth on Death Row — all 3,700+ of them — live 20-30+ years longer than the innocent victims they've murdered. Where's Justice? Alas, there is none: Life isn't fair at all. Death is far more kind and egalitarian. Justice Is A Sad Joke. The eight victims are still dead, but the subhuman, piece-of-shit murderer is still alive. How does that square? Simple. It doesn't. The lowlife scumbag should have been executed immediately after conviction and not allowed to live 12 additional years in a comfy prison. Anyone confessing should be executed immediately upon conviction; no appeals. Those tried and convicted, but not admitting guilt, should get one week to appeal; then be quickly executed. Sounds perfectly rational to me. C'mon, elect me King; I'll "fix" the f*cked up Justice System by decree and clean the stinking prisons out for good. Need another example? Okay, read about this miscarriage of justice; the good guys are now on trial by liberal filth and the murderers have been set free. Very f*cked up doings in Illinois. Here's a piece of subhuman filth who got his just desserts. Good riddance, scumbag. Though I disagree with the gay lifestyle, that's no reason to whack anyone. The two murderers should quickly be executed for Killing that student. Wyoming is a cowardly state for not having and implementing capitol punishment for murder and other heinous crimes. And for purposely spreading AIDS to teens and young girls in a sex-for-drugs trade, this piece-of-shit idiot should be executed immediately. Let's drag him behind a pickup truck and rip him to pieces. That's justice. I hate lowlife, subhuman filth, regardless of color: white trash, idiots, illegal aliens, towelheads, gooks et al. Clinton The Psycho. Only an sociopathic moron — now a synonym for Bubba the lying rapist criminal — would repeat serious felonious sexual assaults on women for over 30 years and think he's impervious to the Law. Only a criminal would plan to destroy his enemies in return for their exposing his crimes to the world, and trying to remove his stinking, lying, immoral ass from elected office. Clinton has a history of revenge on many people. America elected a psychotic scumbag — twice — and is now stuck with his for another 20 months. The lowlife sons and daughters of bitches in The US Senate shirked their sworn duty to convict and remove the Clinton filth after being duly impeached in The US House of Representatives. Oooooooooooo! The American Museum of Natural History presents an inordinately creepy exhibit — Epidemic: The World of Infectious Disease — about small, insidious life forms. Learn how a complex mix of ecology, evolution, and culture produces conditions in which disease-causing microbes (microscopic organisms that live in our environment) can thrive. Then go wash your hands.