KIRKSVILLE, MO. -- With the warm temperatures at the beginning of the week, you may have gotten a case of “Spring Fever” and the urge to start planting in your garden.
But, the rule of thumb is: “Don’t get in a hurry!” If you do, you could lose all of your hard work in a random, snowy, cold-spell like we had Friday.
Jennifer Schutter, Horticulture Specialist at University of Missouri Extension in Kirksville, says you can start planting your cold-weather vegetables like lettuce, spinach, peas, potatoes, broccoli and cauliflower. But, do NOT plant in muddy, wet soil. Wet soil is easily compacted and does not allow your vegetables’ roots to get air, so they rot and die. “It's important not to get out there in wet soil,” Schutter emphasized. “Now, if you have raised beds, that is the ideal for putting in potatoes and other root crops and starting your seeds. Raised beds are a great way to get an early start on the season.”
Warm weather veggies like peppers, eggplant and tomatoes need to wait. Plant them in May.
She also recommends you wait to plant flowers, like petunias and marigolds. But, if your green thumb just can’t wait, she says you can start planting pansies and snapdragons now.
Last year, the one thing Heartland planters did not want to grow was crabgrass, but it grew in abundance. Crabgrass is an annual grass, which germinates from seed and only lasts one season. Because it was so bad last year, it could continue to cause problems this year. “There's a lot of seed sitting in people's yards, so in order to prevent that this year, you need to put out a crabgrass preventer and that crab grass preventer needs to be put on by April 15,” Schutter said. “As the soil gets warmer and reaches 60 degrees, crabgrass will germinate." If you use crab grass preventer, do NOT reseed your yard. The preventer kills all germinating seed; it cannot distinguish between good seed and bad seed.
Happy planting!
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