15 hours Ago By USA TODAY
The temperatures may still be chilly in much of the U.S., but it's time to warm up to your plans for the growing season.
Gardening is a growing trend – no pun intended – across the U.S. with more than 80% of households taking part, according to the National Gardening Association .
Lawn care is the primary gardening activity, but planting of flowers, vegetables and cultivating indoor houseplants – all good spring gardening projects – have gained popularity in recent years. "Spring is the time when gardeners go get their seeds and start their transplants and prepare their vegetable beds," said Dave Whitinger, executive director at the National Gardening Association. If this is the year you want to grow vegetables or plant some flowers, it's about time to take action.
Established green thumbs also need to prepare for spring, too. Here's some tips to get ready for spring. What's your planting zone? A great garden begins with knowing your gardening zone; these maps will help Seeds: Grow or plant them this spring Many of those who garden expect to spend more this year, according to a survey done by Axiom Marketing, a Minneapolis-based marketing firm that serves the agriculture, horticulture and landscaping industries.
Its 2025 Gardening Outlook Study found that about 40% expected to spend more. To save money, many gardeners start with seeds to grow plants that they can transplant, rather than buy their plants at a garden center or a major retailer such as Home Depot. "Right now, depending on where people live, they’re thinking about getting their vegetable gardens ready for planting potatoes, perhaps planting seeds in trays for later transplant, planning their gardening activities for the year, or learning about new garden topics through reading, listening, or webinars," said Cheryl Boyer, a professor and Department of Horticulture and Natural Resources Extension Program Director at Kansas State University.
Flowers and vegetables such as tomatoes, lettuce and peppers can be grown from seeds indoors. Ideally, you'd start six weeks before the expected last frost date for where you live. There's many variables for growing plants indoors including type of plant, its hardiness, the container to use and planting mix.
You can find advice on individual plants – from arugula to zucchini – on the National Gardening Association website's plant database . You can also look for local planting advice on the website of your state's extension service, which is usually affiliated with a university (just search online for (your state) extension service). For instance, t he West Virginia University Extension has an in-depth section on seed starting.
Many plants grown by seed needed to have been started last month, with transplanting to begin in April – so you may want to set a calendar reminder for next year. But some plants such as lettuce can be directly seeded in your garden as soon as the ground has thawed, according to the NGA site. Seeds for summer plants such as squash , cucumbers and sunflowers can be planted in the ground in mid-April, the NGA says.
If you are growing some flowers from seed indoors, you can prepare them for transplanting by putting them outside during warmer parts of the day. When do you start planting a garden? You can find when it's time to plant outside by going to The National Gardening Association website and plugging your zip code in. In Kansas, for instance, the frost-free growing season starts April 19 and ends Oct.
11, according to the site. You don't have to wait for frost likelihood to end to start planting some vegetables and other plants. "Spring is the season for starting cool-weather vegetables," such as beets, broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, lettuce, onions and turnips, said Miri Talabac, a horticulture specialist at the University of Maryland Extension's Home and Garden Information Center.
Also good to plant in early spring are hardy plants, such as perennials – think asters, delphinium and pansies – as well as shrubs, trees and vines, she told USA TODAY in an email exchange. You can plant these "any time the ground is workable (that is, not frozen and not too wet)," Talabac said. "Only frost-sensitive plants like greenhouse-grown herbs and warm-weather annuals (both decorative flowers and vegetables like tomatoes) need to wait until the temperatures (air and soil) are warmer.
" Those less hardy plants should go into the ground after the chance of frost has passed. (You can reference these planting zone maps for each region in the U.S.
for more info .) Spring cleaning for your garden If you already have a garden or plot outside where you've grown plants, shrubs and flowers, you can do some cleanup and preparation for their return. But don't overdo it.
"We discourage gardeners from doing too much 'tidying up' in spring, in terms of pruning off old perennial stems and cutting back shrub branches," Talabac said in an email exchange. "This is primarily because various beneficial insects (including some of our native bees) can use those plant parts as winter shelter, and won't be emerging to resume activity until later in the year." When cutting back dead plant and flower stems, leave 8 inches to 2 feet, depending on the plant.
Those stems will be hidden by this year's blooms and remain as a possible home for bees and other helpful insects, which will emerge as temperatures rise. For more information, Talabac suggests the Tufts Pollinator Initiative and the Xerces Society websites. In flower beds, you can rake, cutback foliage and remove winter mulch.
If there's an excess of full leaves, you can remove them as planting and growing season approaches. You can prune rose bushes, fruit trees and most other trees – but put off pruning birch, maple, and walnut trees until they bloom – and plant new ones. Also fertilize and add new mulch, up to four inches deep but avoid creating "mulch volcanoes," with 1 foot or more of mulch enveloping the trunk.
Those suggestions come from the Kansas State Research and Extension website. "Each state’s Extension service will likely have a gardening calendar available on their website for activities people can be thinking about at any given week in the year," Boyer said. You may want to do a soil test – there are do-it-yourself kits or you can send samples to a lab (your local extension service may recommend one).
Knowing the makeup of your soil helps you figure out what fertilizer or other nutrients to add. For gardening buffs, there's "lots of soil prep, seed prep, pruning, and tool prep this time of year," Boyer said. As you get to it, remember to take into account where you live.
"Southern states might already be past frost dates and getting busy with all kinds of planting projects," Boyer said. "Northern states are still in the dreaming/catalog-drooling phase of gardening." Planting tips: Experts share 10 things to do (and avoid) when planting a vegetable garden Fo llow Mike Snider on Threads, Bluesky and X: mikegsnider & @mikegsnider.
bsky.social & @mikesnider . What's everyone talking about? Sign up for our trending newsletter to get the latest news of the day This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Planting hacks for a great garden no matter what zone you live in.
