As spring marches slowly into southern Manitoba, gardeners are itching to get outdoors and put those plants in the ground.

Carla Hrycyna, host of The Lawn and Garden Journal on CFAM 950, says these early days of spring are a great time to scan new catalogs for colours trends and new plants,

This year, Hrycyna says gardeners may be torn between annuals and perennials.

"Through the COVID series, we saw a lot of new gardeners going into planting annuals and giving that bright coloration. But there is a little bit of a twist that's happening where people are starting to think that they want to put a little bit more focus on perennials, which will come back year after year and helps to get that mainstay to their gardens. Though, mind you when you walk the garden centers and you see all the different palettes of color in annuals - ooh, it's going to be a hard season to choose which color you want."

The 2023 growing season has the co-owner of St. Mary's Nursery and Garden Centre excited about the Strawberry Sky Petunia, with its deep fuscia color tone and speckling.

"It's a little twist on finds that have colors that they've created or been able to twist into it. And I know that the Night Sky series, it was beautiful! When we had the Night Sky Petunia come out - ohh, people loved it! And, the other one that really features out for me is the Dragon Wing Siri begonias which we saw it in red and also in pink. Now they've improved it and we've got a white one, which I think is going to be just gorgeous."

Hrycyna admits that, while she loves all the colors, her beds may be dominated by one that's technically not a colour at all.

"I don't know, but, this year, because of the white I think the soothingness of a white garden may play on. And that aspect sort of carries it over into a moon garden. 
So this year, I myself might be looking at just a white garden, which might be really pretty."

Even though gardens in southern Manitoba are still buried beneath the snow, Hrycyna says there's always something to do.

"Check your Begonia bulbs. Check your canna bulbs. If you're going to do impatience or geraniums, those should have been done already, and you might just want to play catch up. Get those going. And the other thing I'd like to do is take inventory of those seed packs that maybe you held over some seed with, to see where you're at with it. And of course, why not get out some of those gardening magazines and gardening books and start creating a plan? It always begins with a plan."

Hrycyna returned to host her fifth season of The Lawn and Garden Journal on CFRY this morning. It will now run every Saturday morning at 9:15 a.m. until November.

Listen tp previous shows here (today's episode coming soon)

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