Happy Easter from The Lawhead Team! We wish everyone a very fun and enjoyable Easter with family and friends. Check out some of our Easter facts:

Easter Trivia from http://www.indobase.com/holidays/easter/easter-facts/

• The name Easter owes its origin from Eastre, the Anglo-Saxon goddess who symbolizes hare and egg.
• Easter always falls between March 22 and April 25.
• Pysanka is a specific term used for the practice of Easter egg painting.
• From the very early times, egg has been considered the most important symbol of rebirth.
• The initial baskets of Easter were given the appearance of bird’s nests.
• The maiden chocolate eggs recipes were made in Europe in the nineteenth century.
• Each year witnesses the making of nearly 90 million chocolate bunnies.
• Next to Halloween, Easter holiday paves way for confectionary business to boom.
• When it comes to eating of chocolate bunnies, the ears are preferred to be eaten first by as many as 76% of people.
• In the catalogue of kids’ favorite Easter foodstuff, Red jellybeans occupy top most position.
• Americans celebrate Easter with a large Easter egg hunt on the White House Lawn.
• Easter Bonnets are a throwback to the days when the people denied themselves the pleasure of wearing fine angels for the duration of Lent.
• Easter is now celebrated (in the words of the Book of Common Prayer) on the first Sunday after the full moon, which happens on, or after March 21, the Spring Equinox.
• In medieval times, a festival of egg throwing was held in church, during which the priest would throw a hard-boiled egg to one of the choirboys. It was then tossed from one choirboy to the next and whoever held the egg when the clock struck 12 was the winner and retained the egg.
• Some Churches still keep up the old tradition of using evergreens – symbolic of eternal life – embroidered in red on white, or woven in straw, but most now prefer displays of flowers in the spring colors of green, yellow and white.
• The custom of giving eggs at Easter time has been traced back to Egyptians, Persians, Gauls, Greeks and Romans, to whom the egg was a symbol of life.
• The date of Passover is variable as it is dependent on the phases of the moon, and thus Easter is a movable feast.
• The first Easter baskets were made to look like bird’s nests.
• The maiden chocolate eggs recipes were made in Europe in the nineteenth century.

Spring is here and it is time to get the outside of your home ready for the warmer months!  We’d like to share some gardening tips on how to spruce up your walkway or fence by adding brightly colored annual flowers.

In order to have the best look, go with brightly colored annuals.  Violas are a great gardening option as they can thrive in almost any US climate.  Grouping colors together in large spaces can help boost the intensity of your walkway or fence.  Colors will lost impact if they are spread farther apart.

When you are out shopping for your annuals, check the roots.  If there are fleshy or individual roots around the outside of the root ball, don’t buy them.  A younger plant’s root-ball is still mostly dirt.  This is what you want to look for.

Before planting you want to properly prepare the soil by spading the entire plot.  A spading fork works better than a shovel.  Add 3-4 inches of compost to the plot and mix the compost with the soil and rake smooth.

In order to get a preview of your gardening efforts, arrange your flowers out before planting to determine your layout.  In order to prevent stomping on your flowers, plant them from back to front.  Plants should be spaced tightly, with root ball to root ball.  While this sounds unusual, annuals don’t live long enough for their growth to be a concern.  With tight spacing, if one dies, there will not be a noticeable gap.

Dig a deep enough hole so the entire root ball is covered.

After planting, make sure to water the entire flower bed.  If you start to notice wilting while planting, stop and water that section but make sure to avoid watering on the actual foliage.  Water on foliage can act as a magnifying glass with the sun shining and damage your plants.

To make your flower’s color last, check your plants daily and clip off any faded blooms.  It is also important to fertilize with half of the manufacturers recommended dosage but doing so twice as often.  Fertilizing generously and regularly gives your annuals a stable diet and encourages more consistent blooms.

After you fertilize, it is important to water the bed to ensure the nutrients are sent deep into the root zone.  This technique will make any fertilizer used more effective.

To give your flower bed more visual interest, add potted plants.  Brightly colored pots add to your garden as pieces of art.