Buffalo, NY -- With the lingering spring cold and snow, gardening this season will take more work and more patience than normal.
"It's going to start out a little slow, just because the soil temperatures are just going to be lower than normal this time of year," said Mark Sullenberger, a Master Gardener with the Chautauqua County Cornell Cooperative Extension. "That may impact some starting of early seeds and make it a little more difficult to get a garden established right off the bat."
Sullenberger also says once the weather breaks there will be extra things to do to keep your soil healthy this year.
"That you get some drainage from all that water that's accumulated in your garden," Sullenberger said. "Keeping your soil tilled and aerated is probably your best goal as far as bringing in all of the nutrients, and all the good bacteria that will support your soils and make your plants healthy."
Drawn out winters can cause more fungus problems in the soil, and with later planting this year expect produce to be delayed by weeks.
"Aeration makes it harder for those more damaging fungus to regenerate... the plants that typically mature and provide produce in a small window, they will be ok but they will come 2 or possibly 3 or 4 weeks later than they normally would," Sullenberger said.
Also Sullenberger reminds to make sure soil is dry enough before planting.
"If it's compacted and muddy... wait until you get the first period 4 or 5 dry days and then test it out," Sullenberger said. "Don't get too anxious... best rule of thumb for outdoor gardening here is wait until May 15th... pretty much assured that you're not going to have frost or a freeze that will affect your crop.