Over the years, there is a lesson about punctuality that has been thrown at me from all sides. I’ve heard from multiple grandparents that “To be on time is to be late and to be early is to be on time.” And to this day I follow that. I’m always leaving early for things, and you can count on me to be sitting in my car waiting for an event to begin because I got there earlier than it actually started. I do realize that not everyone operates that way, but I’m OK with being early, because it alleviates at least one channel of stress in my life.

Of course, in a busy world, it is impossible to be perfect. But both Kim and I have found a solution that helps keep us on track. We control time. As more and more devices become digital and connected, our control over the clock has diminished, but there is still one clock we can easily control. The one in our car. As I write that, I realize that may not be the case in new cars that are connected to the internet. But in our cars (that are old enough to vote) we can easily control how we set the clocks.

The funny thing is that Kim and I live in completely different times. She sets her clock forward twelve minutes and I set mine forward six minutes. I don’t know why it makes us both feel like we are “more on time,” but somehow it does. I think it gives us a little breathing room when we are hustling to get somewhere and then realize that we actually have a few more minutes to spare once we arrive.

Are we crazy? Does anyone else do this? I’m pretty sure I used to do the same thing with my bedside alarm clock. If you do, what time do you live in? How many minutes is the sweet spot for keeping you on time?

Thank you to everyone who came out this past weekend for Spring Fling. It was a great success, and we hope that you were able to find something beautiful for your gardens and got a chance to learn about your favorite gardening subject. We’ll keep the learning going this coming Saturday with our Simple Landscape Design seminar. In this class, I’ll teach you some basic principles of landscape design and how you can easily apply them to any space in your yard. If you’re like me, you’ve got a few frost- and freeze-damaged plants that need to be replaced, and making sure you have a great plan is the first step towards a beautiful landscape.

I was also reminded this week that I never gave you the go ahead to prune your frost-damaged plants. And while it has been quite warm over the last couple of weeks, what I was really waiting for was the Strawberry Festival, which is going on now. If you’ve lived in this area for a while, you know that it always gets cold during the Strawberry Festival. And this year is no exception. We are looking at a quick drop in temperatures this coming Saturday night, but after that, you are free to prune away. It’s time. And if you set your clocks like me, you might even have a few extra minutes.

P.S. Mark your calendars for our annual Easter Egg Hunt. Saturday, April 16th at 10am sharp, we’ll give the countdown for the kids to find eggs hidden among the beautiful plants at the nursery. Please note that to accommodate the growing size of the event, we are going to close the entrance/exit on Wheeler Rd. for the week leading up to Easter. Of course, all of our gates on Parsons will be open for your use. It’s been three years since our last hunt, and we are excited to watch all of the smiling faces fill their baskets with eggs.