Garden Center at Turlock #1001

On those beautiful days, clean up the yard before everything blooms in earnest. Lawn care is often a priority, as well. Planning your garden lets you make the most of your time and space. You can also add beauty and interest with hardscaping, stonework, and water features. No matter what outdoor projects you choose to tackle, The Home Depot Turlock Garden Center can help you enjoy your spring activities to the fullest.

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 by climate. Find your zone on the USDA plant hardiness 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. You can plant seeds indoors roughly a month before you can plant them outside, or direct sow. Read your seed packet for details. If you start seeds later than recommended, it's not ideal, but it should even out as time passes.

Gardening in Your Growing Zone
This region ranges from 7–9, with higher elevations in Zones 5 and 6. You’ll find fertile land in some places, desert and mountains with harsher conditions elsewhere. What you can grow and when will vary considerably depending on where you live. In Zones 5 and 6, the outdoor growing season doesn’t begin here until mid-March or even April, although you can start some veggies by seed halfway through February. Warmer Zones 7–9 can plant earlier, but if you’re in the desert, you’ll likely want to investigate indoor gardening in a sunroom or porch.

Utilize greenhouses to grow herbs and vegetables. Native plants like cacti, succulents, and other hardy desert shrubs will grow outside with ease. Other beloved garden vegetables love the heat, like squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, and peppers. If you start them indoors and carefully introduce them outdoors in the shade, you can enjoy raising vegetables even in a dry climate. However, many flowers, both annuals and perennials, are sensitive to that much heat and sun, so research to find which varieties can handle the weather before planting outdoors.

Start Seeds Indoors
Grow your garden from seeds by starting them indoors. We've got all the seed starter supplies you'll need. For best results, you'll want warming lights or a warming mat to go with your seed tray or plant pots. If you're planting a larger garden, use seed trays — like the ones you see sprouts in at your Turlock Garden Center — to make it easy to stay organized and plant tiny soil plugs later. You can also use pots with seed starter mix and potting soil.

Measure your finger to use it as a ruler. In general, you'll plant 3–5 seeds, then press them into the soil to the depth you need with your finger. Mark where you planted the seeds with a plant tag or toothpick. Otherwise, it'll be a surprise when the sprouts push out of the soil.

Sprouts
Prepare your seed sprouts for outdoor life while they're still indoors. These micro-seedlings are fragile — only an inch or so high, with the tiniest seedling leaf or two — but they're resilient. Seedlings don't get all this pampering in nature when they volunteer and grow wherever they please, so they can handle more than you think. However, don't go overboard, as your sprouts are still babies. You can even use an oscillating fan on low to mimic the wind and strengthen their stems.

Harden Your Seedlings
Harden your seedlings for strong plants. On days above 45 degrees, take your pots or trays of seedlings outside to slowly warm in the shade for a couple of hours, but bring them inside at night. Cloudy days are fine, but no direct sunlight or harsh nighttime chills yet. After a week or more of this, you can leave them out overnight if the temps stay warmer than 50 degrees. Cover your plants if they're in the ground and a late-season frost sneaks back in.

Transplant Young Plants Into Their New Homes
By now, your plants have three or four real leaves — they'll look different from the miniature seedling leaves. When you're not expecting soaking rain, and the ground is warm, look into transplanting your small plants into their new outdoor home. "Transplant" means that you put these small plants straight into the garden soil or into pots. 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 compost and mulch. Mulch controls weeds and keeps the soil moist. Compost enriches the soil so your garden can grow even better. It may help foster stronger plants that bear more flowers and fruit. Mulch and compost can be DIY creations, but you can also purchase them in-store. The next time you're looking for "mulch near me," stop by the Garden Center to get the right amount.

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