Homeowners and gardeners are itching to get back outdoors—but with so much to do, where do you begin? Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden prepared a checklist of springtime chores to simplify the process. Early spring: now through March 31 •Prepare power equipment by refueling, changing oil and replacing spark plugs. •Sharpen hand-tool blades, replace worn equipment, and restring edgers and trimmers.

Clichés and rhyming weather lore passed down through the generations supposedly predict weather patterns and seasonal changes. Naturalists and amateur forecasters enjoy correlating these sayings to what they observe in nature to suggest what the future might bring. Though idioms such as “no weather is ill, if the wind be still” have become part of our culture, most of the predictions are unreliable. The few that are valid are those based on underlying scientific cause-and-effect relationships, such as the response of plants, animals and insects to changes in atmospheric and environmental conditions.

Packages marked “handle with care” began arriving at Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden this week. It’s hard to imagine more fragile contents than butterflies—actually chrysalides—in the pupa stage of their metamorphosis.

Gardening should not be work, Armitage says GARDENING Allan Armitage, a professor at the University of Georgia and renowned horticulture writer and speaker, says gardening is becoming a four-letter word. “Gardening is now considered work—a four-letter word. It’s become way too complicated,“ Armitage said, citing the popularity of HGTV shows featuring instant landscapes. “They make [the landscape] in 24 hours, but the plants are dead in 24 days.“ The result is unrealistic expectations. He said gardening is a lifestyle, not an activity, and we need to make it fun again.

Hardy flowers—Winter pansies in yellows and purples and flowering cabbages and kale in purples and whites will bloom throughout winter until temperatures drop into single digits.