‘Frost free is really key’: Tips on spring garden timing from a local expert
It may officially be spring, but is it warm enough yet to start spring activities like planting your summer vegetables?
A local expert wants you to know what you should be looking out for before putting those plants in the ground or on your deck.
Have a seed packet you’re waiting to plant? Look up when the last frost is in your area.
“Back up however many weeks before that last frost that the seed catalog or packet tells you to start the season,” said Miri Talabac, horticulture coordinator for the Home and Garden Information Center (HGIC) at the University of Maryland Extension.
“I know, overall, definitely, things have been milder this winter,” Talabac acknowledged. However, “there’s still cold snaps we can get.”
She said that if you picked up herbs or flowers at a local garden center you’re looking to plant: “I would keep it inside until we’re done freezing at night, or at least put it out on a mild day, but bring it back in when it’s cold at night.”
Talabac said if it’s a hardy perennial plant, those can usually they can go straight outside and get planted. But if it starts to freeze overnight, “You can throw like an empty plant pot over them on a cold night or like an old pillowcase, just something to protect them a few degrees from a frost and then they’ll be OK,” she said.
If you’re trying to grow veggies like tomatoes, peppers or eggplants, Talabac said you might want to wait a bit until there’s no frost at night.
“Putting them out too early, if they get frosted, that can be serious plant damage, but even if it’s just cold and the soil’s cold, they’ll have trouble picking up certain nutrients out of the soil. They just sort of sit there and stagnate, and they can get a little nutrient deficient,” she said.
What about those tropical plants in your house?
“Frost free is really key. A lot of those tropical indoor plants will not tolerate cold and even in the 40s or low 50s. So just waiting until we get closer to mid-May, late May even, is safe for a lot of those,” she said.
HGIC provides free gardening information and can answer Marylanders’ specific questions about their plants through a form on their website.