Planting the garden on the May long weekend is a rite of spring for many Manitobans, but with cooler than usual temperatures earlier this season, should gardeners wait?
Some garden experts say those with itchy green thumbs should hold off on putting some plants in the ground, especially those that came from a greenhouse, in order to avoid damage from spring frost.
But for those itching to get into the garden — even with rain in the forecast for much of the weekend — there are at least six things that can be done right now, according to David Hanson, founder of Sage Garden Herbs in Winnipeg:
- Weed your garden.
- Clean up your perennials. Trimming out the old growth would allow more room for them to grow.
- Plant seeds for vegetables that can withstand cooler ground temperatures, such as beets, carrots, potatoes, peas and lettuces. Raised beds are great for these.
- Plant seeds for flowers like calendula sunflowers and poppies.
- Get your planters and pots done. A smaller amount of mud warms up faster. And since it’s not in the ground, you don’t need to worry about frost.
- Pick up trees and shrubs from the greenhouse that have wintered outside. These can be put into the ground now.
As for whether to plant now or wait, Hanson is in favour of waiting.
“The farmers’ tradition would be to wait until the first new moon in June, which can actually be up to the second week of June. The reason for this is there’s still cold coming up out of the ground,” he said.
“If you take those nice greenhouse-grown plants and you put them into the somewhat chilly ground, even if the air temperatures have gotten beautiful, they resent it a little bit.”
Nicole Bent of Shelmerdine Garden Centre is also urging impatient gardeners to wait, especially if they want to plant annuals or perennials.
“You do not want to plant your tender annuals into the ground, or any planter that’s difficult to move,” she said.
“Spring frost is going to do serious damage to any annuals or even perennials…. Most of the perennials that you find in your garden centres are greenhouse-grown, so they are just not ready for the outdoors just yet.”
Bent estimated that spring frost in June occurs about once every four years.
Home, garden stores will be busy
Meanwhile, garden and home stores are expected to be packed this weekend with customers keen to work on their homes, yards or cabins.
Ron Borthistle, one of the owners of the Home Hardware in Selkirk, Man., said it’ll be one of the busiest weekends of the year at his store.
“There’s a lot of basics going on there, from yard cleanup, patching roofs, fixing that plumbing that maybe failed over the course of the winter, raking lawns, staining decks,” he said.
Borthistle said despite the long lines, customers are generally pretty cheerful because it’s a holiday weekend.
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