Arlo and Janis by Jimmy Johnson for March 12, 2019

If you want more then ask to plant them yourself.

Just recognizing where you are on the life cycle.

Plant vegetables then, keep you interested in gardening, and produce for Arlo to cook!

Time… It flies, but it also creeps up on you.

Leave the tree and change the decorations to suit each holiday. Stores can start selling ornaments for every occasion and not just Christmas 6 months out of the year.

We had a tabletop tree…for one year. The grandkids wondered where all the homemade ornaments they made were and worried there wouldn’t be room under the tree for their presents. My bride got us back to a full sized tree again, but I insisted on an artificial. I keep it and the ornaments stored at the bottom of an unused stairwell.

My wife and I are slowing down, too.

My wife and I are usually away for the month of December. It may sound corny , but about a week before Christmas we’ll buy a green pineapple ,put a small string of led lights on it and then eat it on Xmas day. Of course if we are home,we’ll rig a tree for the grandkids. We just like to keep things simple .

I bet that some stores will put Christmas stuff out any day now

Remember the tiny house arc? Janis still wants to down size and is taking tiny steps.

Arlo has his Devo hat on.

Go for it Arlo, do it yourself…

A few pots … we no longer have a deck or a recreation room or a path to the back fence.

Janis is angry at the flower bed!?!? By the way, has Arlo always worn that dork hat?

There comes a time when you realize the planting effort never lived up to the hype! AND that it would be high maintenance. Artistic pots and careful plant selections will reap big rewards with less manual effort.

My grandmother converted to an artificial tabletop Christmas tree years ago. Then, she died.

Hey, we use a table top tree. At our age and with the kids gone, pulling out the full size tree is just too much of a bother. Taking it down is even worse.

Arlo is wearing one of the pots on his head!

Retired and still have a big property. 5000 Sq. ft. of grass and 12 gardens and 1 veggie plot. Full sized arti tree. First year it didn’t come out as I had a cancer scare Dec. 5th and never got results until Dec. 16th clearing the false positive. it will go back up next year.

If she has a hot house, Planting in pots would be a good idea. She could plant some perennials and move them in the hot house in the fall.

Oh, yes. Slippery slope. No carved pumpkin at Halloween, no big Christmas tree, no decorating for Easter or 4th of July… We’ve had a small, fake tree for a few years. Going back to big & real next year. Save the table topper for the retirement home.

That’s why God invented perennials. Look up whichever botanical garden is nearest to you. If it isn’t terrific at letting you choose plants that get planted once and come back every year more beautiful than they were the last, try Missouri Botanical Garden. There is a form you can use to find plants they will do just about anything you want. And, my evergreens have kept my yard pretty all winter. Be sure to plant forsythia— it blooms at exactly the time you have decided you would hang yourself if you could get up the energy to figure out where you stored the rope.

I have the Sunday comic 4/26, I think from last year taped on my desk. Arlo’s comment in the final panel “Why don’t you address them ‘en masse’ when we’re done?” I’m Janis, not Arlo, in this strip.