Bob Stirling, owner of Stirling Landscaping and Nursery Center in Center Township, says gypsum can help neutralize road salt damage to lawns and fertilizers rich in nitrogen can help fix snow mold.

John Darnley echoes gardening advice he heard growing up: Always wait until after Mother’s Day, May 11 this year, to plant your tomatoes. Darnley, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Pittsburgh, said there’s no reason to make an exception this year.

“I’ll wait,” said Darnley, himself a gardener.

Most of this region’s gardening will not be impacted by the long, cold winter, said Jim Schnur of Schnur’s Greenhouse in Butler. With a few exceptions, like fruit trees, crops aren’t vulnerable to extreme weather until late spring.

“Nice weather from here on out would be a plus,” Schnur said.

Darnley said the three-month forecast looks a little damp and cool. There’s a 30-percent chance that temperatures will be lower than average.

“But there will still be sun,” said Darnley, who noted potential for a late frost or freeze is always out there. “That’s why you should hold off on planting most (annual) vegetable plants.”

Bob Stirling of Stirling Landscaping and Nursery Center in Center Township said lawns might not fare as well.

It’s possible grass and landscaping suffered damage from road salt and the lawn itself might have a little “snow mold,” a fungus that grows where heavy snow lay on the sod for long periods of time.

“If you have snow mold it looks like white patches on the grass and you know you have it,” Stirling said.

Fertilizers rich in nitrogen will help fix snow mold, and gypsum will neutralize salt damage in the grass. Stirling advised getting remedies out as soon as possible to have the best possible lawn.

But have no fear: “It will recover on its own eventually,” Stirling said.

While many gardeners and homeowners might hope the long, cold winter also had a chilling effect on the pest population, Luke Fritz, executive director of the Butler County Farm Service Agency, said the jury is mixed.

Some species, like the bean leaf beetle, cereal leaf beetle and slugs, will likely have lower populations in the spring. But other insects, like potato leaf hoppers, black cutworms and armyworms, are migratory and come to Pennsylvania from southern states. Therefore, local weather will not influence their arrival much — their local overwintering conditions matter more.

Stink bugs, Fritz said, seem to have higher mortality the colder it gets, but their overwintering site likely influences their survival.