Garden Center at North Irving #6557

It's time to start thinking of spring. We're here to help you prepare for sprouts poking up, fragrant breezes, and warmer temperatures. Planting seeds indoors with grow lights means you'll be ready to transplant spring annuals and young veggie plants when the ground thaws and the frosts are through. You might even want to directly sow organic seeds into the earth.

Plant Hardiness Zones Explained
The first thing to learn when planting spring flowers, vegetables, and other seeds is your planting zone. Every location in the U.S. and its territories is sorted into blocks by climate. Find your zone on the USDA planting zone map and learn when to plant seeds.

For example, you could plant bell pepper seedlings outdoors in mid-March in Zone 10, but not until the end of May in Zone 4. For best results, choose plants in your zone number or less. In other words, a Zone 9 garden can support plants listed as Zones 1–9. The timeframe to direct sow outdoors in your garden is often around a month later than the indoor start date. Read your seed packet for details. If you start seeds later than recommended, it's not ideal, but it will even out as time passes.

Gardening in Your Growing Zone
If you're in Zone 6–8, check out certain herbs and cruciferous veggies if you're ready to get planting. This includes kale, broccoli, and cabbage. Greens like spinach, artichokes, early-blooming annuals like marigolds, and fragrant herbs, including basil, parsley, and oregano, also don't mind an early beginning. Traditional garden vegetables like peppers of all kinds, cucumbers, and tomatoes are fine with an early spring or late winter planting indoors under the grow lights.

Look up the date of your last predicted frost, then count backward 6 to 8 weeks. That's when you should start your seeds indoors. The idea is to have strong baby plants that are ready for transplant at the same time the ground is warm enough. Do your best and enjoy the process — watching your plants grow, bloom, and put out tiny veggies that'll grow to harvest size is part of the fun.

Plant Seeds Outside With Direct Sow
Planting seeds with the direct sow method, right into the soil, is another option. It doesn't give you as much organized planning in terms of space and reliability as starting indoors. However, if you like to go with the flow, follow the instructions on your seed package and try it.

Prepare to deal with whatever hand nature deals you: Be ready for none of your seeds to sprout, all of them to come up, and anything in between. Your seedlings will need to survive wind, rain, bugs and rodents that crave tender greens, and sudden cold temperatures. But if you're lucky, you'll get strong sprouts that are ready to grow all spring.

Start Seeds Indoors
If you're eager to get growing or would like more control in the care and feeding of seedlings, start your seeds indoors instead. In general, you can plant seeds indoors about a month before you can do it outside. Like direct sow, you push the seeds into the soil as directed on the seed packet, but that's where the similarities end.

You're responsible for giving them quality substitutes for sunlight and rain. Keep your seeds warm with warming mats and grow lights, water them carefully with a spray bottle or watering can, then thin them as they germinate in groups of three. Give them a boost with a gently blowing fan as they lengthen into sprouts if you'd like. Harden them off to get them used to outdoor conditions, then transplant them into your garden when they're big enough.

Transplant Young Plants Into Their New Homes
By now, your plants have three or four true leaves — they'll look different from the miniature seedling leaves. When the ground is warm, and you're not expecting soaking rain, look into transplanting your big sprouts into their new outdoor home. These large seedlings that are ready to be planted can also be called "transplants" or sometimes "starts." In cases where you direct sowed, you may still want to shuffle plants around for the best spacing and sun. That's also a transplant situation, as is repotting plants into larger pots.

Protect Your Garden With Mulch
Finish your flower bed with mulch and compost. Mulch controls weeds and keeps your soil from drying out. Compost enriches the soil so your garden can grow even better. It may help foster larger plants that bear more fruit and flowers. Compost and mulch can be purchased in-store or created at home. The next time you're looking for "mulch near me," stop by the Garden Center to get the perfect amount.

Greet the Spring
Early spring is an exciting time in the world of gardening. Don't miss a minute of growing season. Prepare to fertilize your lawn, plan your garden and landscaping, and browse our garden center pages to find inspiration on which spring flowers to plant when the weather warms. Shop for the soil, fertilizer, and seeds you need in the aisles of your North Irving Garden Center, online, or on our mobile app. Let's get growing together.