Getting ready to garden: what you can plant now, and what should wait

With spring in full swing, garden lovers are ready to go full force with their flower and/or vegetable gardens. Lucky for them, its late enough in the year that a decent number of flora can be planted.

“There’s a lot of things that can be planted now,” said Aaron Brown from Eagle Rock Nursery. “Things like onions can grow now, peas are ready to be planted, potatoes can go in. There’s many leafy greens like lettuce and spinach that can be planted.”

Eagle Rock Nursery divides garden fruits/vegetables into four categories: A, B, C, and D. With ‘A’ being the heartiest, and ‘D’ being the most temperate. Brown said A’s and B’s can be planted now. A full list of garden variety plants and their respective categories can be found below.

Brown said besides hearty vegetables, its safe enough to plant a variety of flowers. “Anything you see outside now can be planted outside at your home,” said Brown pointing to the rest of the nursery.

Besides preparing your flowerbeds or gardens, now is a good time to get your lawn ready for the season. One of the big first steps is to de-thatch your lawn. “As the snow sat throughout winter, you get a lot of thatch in the lawn which is the dead grass, the dead organic matter in the lawn,” said Jon Russel, who works at Eagle Rock Nursery. “There’s products you can use to get rid of it. One of the products is called humates. It helps speed up the decay of the thatch. You can also power rake it.”

Russel recommends using a spring fertilizer with nitrogen to give your lawn an extra boost. He also said now is a good time to start watering, pending any spring storms that move through.

Below is a seed planting guide provided by Eagle Rock Nursery. These estimates are for the central Snake River Plain region around Idaho Falls. Dates can be bumped up a bit for lower elevations, and should be pushed back a bit in higher elevations.

Group A: Plant as soon as the soil dries out in spring. Approx. mid-March to early April.

Group B: Plant a week or two after group A. Approx. late April to early May.

Group C: Plant around the average last frost date. Approx. mid to late May.

Group D: Plant about a week after group C. Approx late May to early June.

Plant Variety Hardiness Group Asparagus A Bean, Bush C Bean, Pole C Beet B Broccoli A Cabbage A Carrot B Chard B Collards B Corn D Cucumber D Endive B Kale A Kohlarabi A Lettuce, Head B Lettuce, Leafy B Melon, Cantaloupe D Mustard Green A Onion Seed A Onion, Bunching A Onion Sets (Bulb) A Parsnip B Peas A Peppers D Potatoes B Pumpkin D Radish B Spinach A Squash, Summer D Squash, Winter D Tomatoes D Watermelon D