KEARNEY, Neb. — Seventy-four-degree temperatures and sunny skies had Kearney gardeners flocking to local nurseries, but experts urged caution with a snowstorm forecast for Wednesday.
The first warm days of spring have many people ready to plant, and local nurseries have been fielding questions about what’s safe to put in the ground now and what should wait.
“It’s tough. You have a nice day like this, 70 degrees, you want to get out and do stuff. You have to just put a pause on it,” said Brock Steinbrink, owner of Steinbrink Landscaping Center.
Steinbrink said some planting can be done now, especially with plants that have already made it through a Nebraska winter. Dormant trees, shrubs and perennials that have overwintered locally can go into the ground. For early color, cold-hardy annuals such as pansies and ornamental kale can tolerate temperatures down into the low 20s.
“You can plant those now. There’s not a lot of frost in the ground right now just because of how mild temps have been. But new plants — plants that haven’t overwintered here in Nebraska — we do not recommend planting those until maybe later in April,” Steinbrink said.
Vegetable gardening is also a focus this time of year, with experts recommending planning and seed-starting before outdoor planting begins. Elizabeth Exstrom said gardeners should work backward from Mother’s Day to time indoor seed-starting for warm-season crops.
“We’re going to count back six to eight weeks from Mother’s Day — spoiler alert, it’s the end of March. So that is the time frame where we want to start those transplants indoors,” Exstrom said.
Cold-season crops such as broccoli, spinach, kale and cauliflower can be planted directly outdoors from mid-March through late April. For warm-season crops like tomatoes and peppers, Exstrom recommended starting seeds indoors now and waiting to move plants outside until around Mother’s Day.
She said gardeners don’t need expensive supplies to get started. Recycled yogurt cups and old cell packs can work as containers, as long as they are sanitized first. If seedlings become tall and thin, it’s a sign they need more light.
“If your transplants start getting really tall and leggy and stretching out, it means you don’t have enough light — you’re going to need to supplement that,” Exstrom said.
For those who still want to get outside and work in the yard, Steinbrink recommended watering established plants after a dry winter across the region, especially newer landscaping.
“We had a really dry winter. So if you’re just itching to be out and work in your garden, we highly recommend watering — making sure everything, especially plants that were planted in the last two or three years — getting those thoroughly watered,” Steinbrink said.
With a return to winter weather possible, experts said the best approach is to enjoy the warm day, water what’s already planted and focus on planning until conditions are more reliable.
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