the Survivors

 

It was a very mild winter here in Georgia. There might have been a dozen flakes of snow that never made it to the ground. One or two days with the potential for black ice.

A scattered handful days of barely below-freezing weather. 

This grayish-looking thing is a butterfly bush that I bought late in the season. The mailbox garden was already overrun so I parked it in this planter and crossed my fingers. A few of the pansies made it too, tough little buggers. 

Once I get the mailbox garden cleaned up, I'll move the butterfly bush up there to keep company with the other perennials.

This hollyhock was grown from seeds that *someone* sent me years ago. I found the little plastic bag in the bottom of a container and planted them with no idea if they were still viable. 

I'll have to dig it up and move it back. It's literally right at the edge of the asphalt and if it gets as tall as it should, it will block the mailbox.

On the left, the children of Satan, I mean irises. I thought I got them all dug out and re-homed last year. Silly me. 

Righ behind the mailbox is my gardenia, poised to intoxicate me with its fragrance every time I pull up for the mail. It needs shaping and feeding. 

Peonies are just breaking through the soil on both sides of the gardenia. That's Bailey being nasty as I watch!

I confess that all my horticultural attention was focused on the back deck last year. That worked out so well, I won't need to repeat the effort this year and hope to get this little patch back to glory.

It needs topsoil, manure, vermiculite, Miracid for the gardenia. Worms would be good. Coffee grounds and eggshells. Some packets of nasturtium and marigold seeds. My back hurts just thinking about it all.