March Forth!

We often see a little bit of spring in late February here in central Ohio, but there's no guarantee that it will happen that way. But once it turns to March, spring generally begins in earnest, despite the still chilly weather.

The weather is slowly warming, with emphasis on the SLOW. And we've had lots of rain. Occasionally we saw a little warmth and sunshine this month, so on those days I made sure to drop all my other activities in order to do garden cleanup. It felt wonderful to be back in the garden!

I've been keeping this garden blog for a good number of years now, so you may have seen these early spring sights here before. Maybe this is nothing new, but it doesn't really lose its luster for me. When the first flowers show up after a long, cold winter, I'm just as happy every single year.

It's the pops of color that make the first flowers so exciting. Winter here is very drab, with very little snow cover. Once the world starts showing color again, it's a welcome change from the endless dreary days of winter. However, there's one favorite plant that is far from drab in the late winter, and that's Sedum Angelina. If you've ever visited my blog before, you know I have a deep appreciation for this stuff. If you decide to try it, know that it needs full sun, very little water and it spreads freely when all these needs are met. But it is easy to move if it gets a little overly enthusiastic. This is its winter coloring. Once warm weather returns, it will return to being bright green.

By the end of March, I'm ready to put pansies into my planters. I know they like chilly weather, but it's still a little risky to plant this early. I just figure they'll end up with a bit of snow on their heads, but they'll mostly shrug it off. I just have to have pansies, even with little snow hats.

But the opposite of snow was our spring visit to Florida. Mostly we go to visit family, while also enjoying a bit of early spring.

And now it's back to Ohio, where I anxiously await the arrival of real spring weather. It's not going to be today though. Temperatures dropped about 30 degrees overnight and there's snow in the air. I thought March was supposed to go out like a lamb? Not this time!