Spring feels more like winter

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) - These first days of spring seem a lot like winter, and that has businesses and residents trying to cope with the freezing weather. 

The outside flower garden at Sullivan's Hardware is usually filled with flowers and pansies this time of year. 

It's empty. 

The pansies are inside, staying warm in the greenhouse.  And they aren’t being bought.  

"It's so cold right now. It may not kill the pansys but it will burn  the color off of them.  So then you just have a green plant and nobody wants that," says Pat Sullivan, the hardware store's owner. 

Hoosiers aren’t buying lawn furniture either.  Sullivan says coping is what small business owners have to do to survive.  

"But this is ridiculous. People aren't even thinking about it. Completely non-existant. As far as people talking about their lawns and planting grass seed, all the stuff that people should be doing right now, it's not happening," he says. 

Not much of anything is happening outdoors these days.  It's Thursday afternoon and the sun is shining brightly, but with below freezing temperatures Louie and owner Matt Zito have the Broad Ripple Bark Park to themselves. 

And they don't like it. 

"If there were more dogs he'd get a lot more exercise out there and leave me alone while I'm working," Zito says. 

No one was using the swings or the slide at Broad Ripple Park.  In fact, it was completely empty Thursday. 

Spring usually means a nice walk on the Monon Trail.  Brisk is the best way to describe walking there or anywhere this spring. 
  
Matthew Williford is on spring break from grade school. 

"I think it could be a lot warmer so we can enjoy it more and not freeze our ears off,"  he says. 

Back at the hardware store, Pat Sullivan says a little warmth would put people in a better and spring buying mood. 

"We do need it to warm up. Or we need at least the threat of a warm up.  So if you could just slide a 70 degree day in that ten day forecast, it would be awesome," he says. 

Sullivan says people with container gardens are buying a few plants. They keep them inside and will move them out when it warms up. Otherwise, he doesn't recommend residents consider planting anything.  He said plants can survive frost, but can't survive a freeze.