It was a great year for all magnolia trees in the neighborhood, ours included.

This is probably due to a combination of a very easy winter, and temperatures that – for the last half-dozen or so days – have been over 80 degrees. Yeah, in March. It’s 83 degrees right now.

This picture was taken a couple of days ago, when the blossoming was at its peak. After that, the blossoms drop and create a slimy mess below/around the tree.

Today, the weather was right for putting down the first lawn treatment (yeah, again, way early this year), but the blossoms were coming down off the tree like it was snowing.

Now, I needed to fertilize the lawn, not the carpet of petals.

So – a section at a time – I had to quickly rake the petals onto the sidewalk/driveway, fertilize that area, and move on.

And then rake up all the slimy petals.

What fun.

But it beats crabgrass, which this feeding is supposed to suppress.