I think your grass will be fine, just give it time. I live just south of you and my grass looks short also, but I think it's the constant running over it with the tractor to mulch leaves. I go with the NCSU recommendations in the link below and give the grass a full range chem fertilizer in mid-Feb. While the grass is dormant now, the roots wili still absorb the fert feeding. Here is a link that might be useful: NCSU Turffiles

Hi Kimberly, I am just north of you. I have a half acre, very wooded subivision lot that is crammed with all the fruit my husband will let me plant. (Most of my landscaping is getting replaced with ornamental bushes that fruit!) One suggestion that I would have for you is to pick very disease resistant, low-care trees/bushes/plants. My friend who lives around the corner from me has a large planting of apples, pears, cheries, etc., but has a lot of trouble with insects and disease. There are definitely varieties of apples and pears that are easier to grow than others due to disease resistance. Sweet cherries are going to be tough without a lot of spraying. I have two Carmine Jewel cherry bushes that are more like pie cherries but only get 6 feet tall, so they can be netted. Birds and especially squirrels are a big problem here. If I had your space, I would definitely do the cane fruits - Navaho and Triple Crown blackberries, Caroline red raspberries, Jewell black raspberries, etc. Easy - and if you net them, you will get to eat them. Some unusual and low care fruit trees you might consider are American Persimmon - Yates is supposed to be delicious and productive without a male. I am going to plant a Nikita's Gift hybrid persimmon in the spring. Also, an Illinois Everbearing mulberry gets lots of good reviews on this forum. The animals are the only thing you will have to fight for those trees. Both persimmons and mulberries are extremely nutritious, too. Good luck and have fun! Mary Kay

Karen, I am so sorry to read about Nipper. Pets are part of us. They are there when we need them, no questions asked. No unnecessary words to mar the beautiful silence, a partner in the garden, couch and bed. It is so hard to let them go. Thank you for sharing Nipper with us. He was absolutley gorgeous. Shannon P.S. I had to put my Australian Sheperd down in April. I planted an Endless Hydrangea in her memory. I chose EH because it blooms on old wood and new- I got Cappie when she was a puppy and I was a teenager- young. She was a retired trail dog. She has been with me through hs, college, getting married, and kids- old. It blooms all summer/endlessly like Cappie's friendship and companionship. The hydrangea doesn't replace her by any means but it helps to look out my window and see her shrub. It is also easy to take cuttings so that if we move she can go with us. Shannon

Beth, The only real issue with planting garlic from the grocery store is that garlic is daylength sensitive and the variety you buy in the store might need a longer daylength than we have here to induce bulbing. However, every kind I've ever bought and planted has grown well and bulbed for me, so the chance of that is slim. The secondary issue is that garlic, like potatoes, is sprayed with an anti-sprouting chemical to keep it from sprouting while in the grocery store on in your kitchen pantry. However, the anti-sprouting agents only last for so long and the garlic does eventually sprout (as do potatoes in the pantry!). I often buy my garlic for planting at a gourmet grocery store in Texas because they label it with its proper name, and the garlic there is organic and hasn't been sprayed with anti-sprouting chemicals. I've never had any trouble getting it to sprout and grow. I've linked the SSE instructions for planting garlic. They were written by the late Darrell Merrell of the Tulsa, OK, area. Whatever you do, make sure it is in well drained soil, preferably in a raised bed several inches above the grade of the surrounding soil. If you don't have raised beds, just mound up enough soil above the ground to plant in that mound. Garlic will rot during an excessively wet winter and spring, and according to NOAA, we should be expecting a wet winter. As long as you break the cloves apart carefully without bruising them and plant them as the guide directs, you'll have garlic bulbs next summer. They key is to plant in the fall. You plant in the fall, cold weather induces growth. In the early summer, the green plant parts begin to turn yellow and brownish and it is time to harvest. When you planted a bulb of store-bought garlic, did you plant the whole bulb? Did you plant in spring? Either one of those can give you only the green scape and seed head. It could be had you a type that was the wrong daylength for our part of the country. With grocery store garlic, you never know. That's why a lot of people prefer to buy 'seed garlic' that is labeled, etc. If you plant grocery store garlic, try to find several different kinds...a white-skinned one, a purple-skinned one, etc. That sort of hedges your bets. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: How To Plant and Grow Garlic