A mallard mama brings her babies to the ground feeders, causing delight & worry about predators.

Returning grosbeaks and damsel flies are greeted like old friends, as are 3-year-old perennials that finally hit their stride.

Spring is the color of hope, when all good things are possible.

To garden with nature, instead of fighting it all summer, a smart gardener designs "water-smart":

With smart design, the garden survives, even thrives, despite the drought.

Next issue: maintaining a water-smart garden.

• Basil & Tomatoes HATE 45 degree nights, but maybe this year we can plant them before June!
• Add 2" - 4" layer of compost mulch to all freshly weeded beds, to conserve moisture and suppress weeds.
• Brugmansia (Angel's Trumpet) can be brought out of the garage or cool greenhouse, cut back, and given a dose of fertilizer, to begin growing for fragrant August flowers.
• Plant summer containers, using a shrub with colorful foliage as the anchor, and filling with summer bulbs, perennials or annuals. Use large pots - 18" wide or more.
• Stake taller perennials such as Hardy Geraniums & Dahlias, before they get tall and floppy.
• WEED! Tackle them after a spring rain, when the soil is soft and releases them easily.
• Be adventurous! Try a new-to-you heirloom vegetable, plant an unfamiliar perennial, or try your hand at garden crafts like hypertufa, concrete leaves or woven trellises. In spring, everything is possible!
• Remember to sterilize and refill hummingbird feeders at least weekly.
• Shear 1/2 the new growth from Lavender, to keep the plant compact and prevent it from splaying.
• When temperatures remain above 45 degrees begin using compost tea, available from Valley Nursery or Bainbridge Gardens.

If the dogs wear a path through the lawn, you can make that a new garden path, & redesign your planting beds next to it. Choose some beds that are OK for them to explore, & only spend your energy to train them to avoid beds of "choice" plants. If they burn the lawn with their urine, try feeding them a Drs Foster & Smith product recommended by our dog- sitter ("Green-UM" and "Lawn Guard" tablets.) (www.DrsFosterSmith.com)

If your dog digs, try digging the planting holes when she is not around. (I'm convinced our German Shepherd, Osa, dug more when she saw me digging.) Avoid smelly, potentially tasty mulches like manure, which only encourages them to dig more. (Osa found a bag of steer manure and spread it all over the back yard when she was a puppy. We still laugh at that memory!)

If your dog is prone to tasting the foliage, avoid poisonous plants in your garden plan. And, never, ever use slug bait or pelletized fertilizers with pesticides added. Many dogs (& cats) love to eat that stuff, and it will kill them.

On the other hand remember what's important: plants are only plants, but dogs are family. I speak from experience: Stop screaming like a madwoman at the dog when she destroys your new herb bed, and use the results of her fun as the new direction in your gardening plans. My experience with our dogs is that the noisy ones kept away deer, coyotes, and bears from our country garden. And, they mellowed with age: They stopped making a mess of the garden after they were about 4 years old. With dogs, as with a garden, patience and a lot of love pay off!