SPRING GARDENING CHORES

Spring is coming. If you have been living with snow, be sure when it melts to clean your garden ornaments with mild soap and water and remove mud and mold and maybe moss. Sometimes moss is part of the beauty of an old garden urn or pot. Clean the inside of all containers you are replanting. The plants will be happier with no leftover insects or disease spores and, of course, new soil.

 

GARDEN STATUE SELLS FOR RECORD PRICE

A 1931 garden statue estimated at $12,000 to $18,000 auctioned for an unexpected $118,000 this week. The 4-foot-tall bronze statue with a green patina was in the garden when a lucky man bought a home and its contents about 40 years ago. The owner was offered $3,000 for the statue a few years ago but kept it until last week's auction. The statue was made in Paris by Egyptian sculptor Mahmoud Mokhtar (1891-1934). Cleveland Auction Co. of Cleveland, Ohio, sold the piece, which set an auction record for the artist's bronzes.