March Gardening

Little Cuter wanted to go outside and play, but it was too cold in Indiana for anything more than napping boys, girls doing artwork at the kitchen table, and Grandparental Units on Facetime.  

I didn't have the heart to tell her about these:

If you enlarge the purple petunias you see they are speckled.

That was new to me.

The succuents

and the cacti are very very happy, 

The cooler temperatures this winter didn't seem to bother them, sheltered as they are in the front courtyard and covered entryway.

The plants in the back had a harder time of it.  

They were in for some serious pruning.  

Thanks to Maga, I had a beautiful butterfly feeder to hold up the more-than-top-heavy flowery remains. 

The hanging basket had retreated into a shell of its former self.  Only the roots and the planting medium survived the temperature changes.  I removed the dead stuff, I separated the three plants as much as I could, and I re-potted them with Black Gold soil from Rillito Nursery

Now nestled in a woven basket (it may last only a season, but what a season it will be.

I wanted a picture of the first rose of the season, but the sunlight suggested that the jalapenos were more deserving.  They've frozen and wrinkled and although the camera makes them yellow, really they turned from green to bright red to an interesting burnt orange.  

My original project was to plant this rose beneath our bedroom window.

I was out there with the amending soil and the proper shovel and a great attitude.

After three pokes at the ground I decided to save my energy for other tasks. 

This beauty will be fine in her container until the garden guys come at the end of the month.

I want to live to garden another day.

I've got a six week window of opportunity; I can't waste a moment.