As the weather gets warmer and the days get longer, would-be gardeners are itching to flex their green thumbs. We talked to David Yost, horticulturist at Merrifield Garden Center, to see what to plant this month.
“It’s a bit of a tricky time of year … but there’s a bunch of stuff that’s absolutely beautiful that is frost-tolerant that you can plant in the ground now. … Things like pansies, primrose. There’s tons of vegetables. Anything green like lettuce, spinach, kale, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower. There’s a big list of vegetables that thrive during cool temperatures. You can plant that stuff right now. Root crops like potatoes, asparagus,” he says.
But it’s best to stay away from less hardy plants. While the center is selling lots of geraniums this month, Yost cautions gardeners to take extra care when the forecast calls for frost. To ensure that your plants survive the cold, he recommends covering them with an empty flower pot or, ideally, a frost blanket, a lightweight covering that insulates plants while allowing them to breathe.
“If you just throw a sheet of plastic over it, that plastic actually traps the heat in there, and if you don’t remove it, believe it or not, if the sun comes up the next day, it can get hot enough in there to injure the plants,” Yost says.
