IDM Quiz...

Are these pictures of Augusta National's famed Amen Corner, or are they the hanging gardens of Babylon?

In fact it's a trick question. These are pictures of the Alva back yard in the absolutely fantastic spring we're having down here in Georgia. In the South, spring comes early and is over very rapidly. Normally, it goes from cool springtime temps to 90's in the span of a month and a half. As a newly minted old guy, one of the indications of achieving this status comes when you wake up one day to discover much to your dismay, that you're obsessed with how your yard looks. When we built our house ten years ago, the builder gave us the standard Bermuda sod in the front and side yards, seeded Kentucky Fescue in the back. This mixture of grass species is not the best way to go here in the South.

Kentucky Fescue is a cool climate grass which goes dormant in the heat of the summer. It appears to die and nearly goes to hay, so fescue looks it's best in the spring and fall.

Bermuda on the other hand, loves the hot temps and heavy humidity. In the winter, it goes completely yellow. It looks like yellow steel wool during this time. While the Bermuda requires little to look good in the way of maintenance, the fescue is a bitch and I've only had one or two years where it's met with my satisfaction to any degree. Based on this, there are only two times during the year in which the whole property looks tip top: briefly in the spring, and during our gorgeous fall. This year however, it appears that I've knocked it out of the park with a little help from my friends at True Green. Not only does it look nice, but my little one and her friends are of the age where they can make good use out of a nice yard full of green grass.

While the fall is great for so many reasons (College football being the most important), spring is great too. The azaleas and the dogwoods are something else and they’re everywhere around our property. If New York owns the most beautiful falls (and it does), then Georgia boasts the greatest springs. As golf fans out there can attest, The Masters is an opportunity to show the world just how beautiful a Georgia spring realy is. This one is shaping up to be particularly spectacular.

UPDATE: All due props to Crazy Neighbor Lady for the flox seen in the picture on the left. It is indeed beautiful (that's the little lavander colored ground cover for all the non-yard obsessed).