DAVENPORT, Iowa — Few things are more weather dependent than gardening. Warm sunny days with rain at night, and everyone is happy. 40 degrees and cloudy, not so much.
"Well, we thought spring was here," Andy Kay, owner of The Green Thumbers in Davenport said.
"We had a nice short burst of spring, people really got confident the weather was nice and warm," Kay added. "And then boom, today came and it cooled things down a little bit."
The short burst came with strong winds and even some devilish snow flurries. Kay had some tips on how to protect your annual flowers from this sudden cold front.
"40s aren't going to bother anything," he said. "But when they start talking mid 30s, you better either go out there and put a sheet over or them, or better yet, if you can pick them up, put them in the garage for the evening."
Kay says your shrubs and and perennials can tolerate the cold temperatures, but your annual flowers can't. The Green Thumbers is having to protect their inventory as well. They spent the afternoon bringing in their annual flowers and hanging baskets to protect them from the cold and wind.
You also can't forget about your vegetables. "What we get is a lot of people coming in who want their tomatoes and peppers and everything, and we tell them, don't plant them yet," Kay said. "You know, people get anxious, it gets warm, people want to go out and get planted."
Kay tells customers that once May hits, you should be good to plant away.