Dear Neighbors

Wow! This just in from Charlie Novak, one of our neighbors on Pizarro. Picture was taken by Larry Panchuk on Saturday, March 27th. A Sea Otter who had caught a pretty good size catfish and was eating it on Charlie's floating dock. The fish was gone the next day, all except the head which Charlie said was about the size of his fist.

You may remember a couple of years ago, we also had some manatees visit our canals. I feel so lucky to be able to live in Treasure Beach.

Welcome Spring! Is anyone still complaining about the weather? Our Vermont visitors left on March 31st to return home. I hope they will return next year. The early mornings at the beginning of April were so pleasant for walking (without a jacket!) and working out in the yard. It's a good time to be planting a garden if you haven't done it already. About a week ago (March 26th) I planted a cherry tomato plant in a patio planter. It is growing nicely so far and in about 60 days (if all goes well) I look forward to harvesting my crop. In our backyard, the weeds were the first thing to green up. Especially the dandelions. Did you know that if you harvest the plants early enough (while they are still small and before the flowers have fully bloomed) you can cook up some wonderful greens for dinner? Not sure how she did this, but my Mom had a lot of success cooking the greens just the way I like them. If you're a little bit curious, just google "dandelion greens" and there are lots of resources to help you make sure you know what you're doing before you try it. Did you also know that dollar weeds are edible? I recommend you do more research before delving into the possibilities. Here is a good resource for more info on dollar weeds and a couple of recipes too! http://bradford.ifas.ufl.edu/documents/CuttingEdgeSeptember09.pdf

If you want to know more about landscaping, gardening, flowers, weeds, etc. visit http://solutionsforyourlife.ufl.edu/