What a difference a few weeks make.  From 12 inches of snow to 66 degrees and sunny, our winter weather has been pretty extreme this year.  The picture below is our backyard after the record snow last month.  It was absolutely beautiful and made me long to live in Colorado.  Of course, it melted in 2 days which wouldn’t happen in Colorado so I might have to be careful what I wish for.

Today, we did some spring transplanting that had been on the list for quite awhile.  We had an Argentine Senna (Senna Corymbosa) planted on a slope in one of our backyard beds and it wasn’t doing well there.  I had tried to support it but it kept growing at an angle.  In the front of the house, we had a Texas Star Hibiscus (Hibiscus coccineus) that the Wylie Police had tried to pull up thinking it was the green ganga, mon.  I kid.  Actually, while it did look a lot like marijuana, it needed to be moved because every spring, it would get nice and tall and then we’d have a thunderstorm blow in that would break half the stems.  Our front yard is a wind tunnel of sorts during storms and we never have been able to enjoy the hibiscus fully.

So, we swapped them out, crossed our fingers and hoped for the best.  The hibiscus moved pretty well and seemed to have a lot of the root ball intact.  The senna wasn’t so successful but once planted, as you can see below, actually looks pretty good.  At least it’s upright, something it never was in the back.  This was its second transplanting and I hope it pulls through.

Your faithful gardener’s apprentice, Seymour:

My early spring vegetables haven’t been too successful yet.  The onions are about 50-50 right now, some have really started to take root while others look like they just got planted.  I fertilized them for the first time after planting last weekend.  The four collard plants I put in the ground immediately froze and died so I replaced them with a brussel sprout and a line of radishes.  The snap peas are just starting to pop out of the ground after being planted last weekend.  We’re due for a really nice week after some early rain tomorrow so they should really start to grow.  The fava beans planted last fall are starting to bloom and may produce a decent crop.

I’m itching to start planting tomatoes and peppers but we still have at least another week before I can verify the 10 day forecast.  Our final spring frost averages March 20th here in Wylie so I’m better off waiting.