Mother Nature, how have I offended thee?

I spent last weekend doing something new for me, namely gardening. I've played with houseplants before, but never actual in-the-dirt gardening.

The reason for this new beginning was that I got a tree from Denver Digs Trees. This is a pretty neat little charity that gives away trees to people in Denver. In exchange you have to plant the tree by the street and take care of it. I think it's a good cause, and good for our urban environment. Plus I got a free tree out of it, a Bugundy Belle Maple to be exact.

While I was at it, I got ambitious and planted a bunch of flowers and groundcover plants in my planter. It was actually a pretty good time, digging up the roots from previous plants, mixing up the soil, planting the new plants. I was starting to think I was not too bad at this gardening thing.

Then it hailed.

Later that night, the temperature got down to freezing, and the next day it snowed.

So now I've learned the first Painfully Obvious Difference Between Houseplants and Gardens: the weather matters.

Another thing I learned is that weird people will talk to me when I'm gardening. But that's a topic for another post.