ST. CLOUD -- Once the calendar turns to April, it's usually time to start exchanging those snow shovels for lawn and garden tools. But, a cold start to April and more snow is pushing back any plans of "thinking spring".

Beth Berlin is an Extension Educator for the University of Minnesota Extension Office. She says the good news for those plant buds is that we didn't have an extended warm-up before another round of cold...

Some of them (buds) started to kind of swell but that's not uncommon.  They will do that.  It's when we had maybe 50, 60 (degrees) and then we dove really deep, so the buds started to get to a point where they broke out.  Hopefully, they're still staying closed yet.  So, they might have swollen or are getting ready but as long as they stayed closed I don't think we'll have damage this year.

Berlin says there's still a ways to go before we can get into our gardens. She says the average frost-free dates come about the third week in May. Until then, Berlin says you just have to be patient.

She suggests using this cold weather to prune any shrubs or trees you may have.

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