UVM gardening experts offer spring planting advice

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) – Many factors could tarnish your green thumb this year. From temperature swings to July’s flooding, experts urge caution before getting dirty in the garden.

Ann Hazelrigg and Deb Heleba work with the UVM Extension, running the plant diagnostic clinic and master gardener programs.

They say spring’s biggest hurdle is the weather, with unexpected warm days followed by the potential for snow and frost.

“You can’t trust the weather in Vermont until after Memorial Day it seems like to me. So I would just warn gardeners– don’t put your plants out early. You’re going to put them in cold soils and they’re just going to sit there anyway,” said Heleba.

A perfect example is last year’s May frost that damaged acres and acres of orchards and plants.

It might feel like it’s in the rearview mirror, but July’s historic flooding could also impact your growing season.

“If a gardener did have problems with the flooding. They may want to consider, you know, using raised beds, you know if they’ve got a low area or poorly drained area use raised beds just to get those roots out of that water-saturated soils,” said Heleba.

If your garden was inundated last year, a concern is that runoff from the floodwaters could have contaminated your soil.

“We might see a lot of silt that the floodwaters left behind so probably need to either remove that or mix it with nice organic matter compost. Highly recommend getting your soil tested,” said Hazelrigg.

Another weather-related change to be mindful of is the change in plant hardiness zones. This means it’s warmer in Vermont than it used to be, so your plants might not perform as well as they have in the past. You also might notice new plants thriving in the slightly warmer climate.

“I’m in the mountains. I used to be in zone three. I think I’m now in zone four. I don’t want to pick a plant that’s zone eight because it’s not really going to perform the way that it’s supposed to in my mountain location,” said Heleba.

The UVM extension also offers a Master Gardener Helpline to answer callers’ questions on all things gardening, such as plant hardiness zones, pest control, lawn care and plant diseases.

“Everyone’s all trained volunteers. They’ve gone through this 16-week course master gardener course. We use all science-based education. So it’s really good in that way. It’s better than Google,” said Hazelrigg.

Gardeners can also send in samples of diseased plants and identification. The helpline opens for the season on Thursday, April 4 from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. You can also get 24/7 help anytime online.

Source: wcax.com