Maybe you've heard: Amazon's got their Big Spring Sale going on right now, with hundreds of thousands of deals across all categories. They do a couple of these big sales each year, but this is the first time they've run one in spring.

🌱 Talk about good timing... I wanted to see what kind of gardening deals are live on the site, and after going through many many many pages, I can say there's a lot!

So to narrow it down, I've hand-picked my favorites and created a Big Spring Sale Idea List over on my Amazon storefront. Check it out if you're not sure where to start; I've linked a number of hand tools, power tools, seedling heat mats, coco coir blocks, and more. The sale ends March 31 and many deals are too good to pass up (especially if you're already looking to get a few things for the season).

➡️ But that's not all! To celebrate their Big Spring Sale, I've partnered with Amazon to give away TWO $150 Amazon.com gift cards to two lucky winners. All you have to do is head over to my Instagram post, give it a like, and tag a friend by March 31.

I'll select two winners at random by April 9 and send those winners a DM. The gift card giveaway is sponsored by @amazoninfluencerprogram and is open to all readers in the USA. Be sure to enter for your chance to win!

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This week, I came down with a strange 48-hour bug that felt like a really bad cold or seasonal allergies. It set me back on some of my gardening chores, but I'm hoping to get back to my to-do list this weekend.

I just dusted off and organized my seed starting station in the garage:

​You can find out exactly what I use in this post that I wrote last month.​

I know it might seem late for some people, but with a last expected frost in mid June, I usually start most of my seeds indoors around late March. I do have several types of seeds started outside in winter-sowing jugs though, and a couple of new perennials (a bare-root peach tree and a goji berry) will be planted outside this weekend.

(Yes, you CAN and SHOULD plant hardy perennials before the last frost—I talk about that here.)

Speaking of that goji berry, I got it from Peaceful Valley and it's the first time I purchased a live plant from their site. I'm very pleased with the experience and may order more this season. The goji berry is about 3-4 feet tall and came packaged extremely well and in excellent condition, as you can see.

Sometimes mail-order plants arrive looking a bit haggard from their journey, but this looked like something I would've bought locally. (I couldn't find a goji berry locally though.)

I should add, however, that local stores aren't always the best places to find plants. I went to a garden center yesterday where half the fruit trees and berries were not hardy to our region at all (I mean, a pineapple guava tree in Central Oregon? That was a tree I grew in Southern California 🙄) and almost all the stone fruit trees were in full bloom, which doesn't work here because of our late freezes.

Anyone buying one of those early-flowering peaches or nectarines will be hugely disappointed when they realize they won't be getting very many fruit after frost nips the majority of those blooms.

So, beware what your local stores try to sell you! Most of their stock is grown and shipped from across the country. Be sure to read the plant tag and verify whether:

• The plant is hardy to your zone (I typically advise going one zone lower just in case, especially if your microclimate tends to be colder)
• The bloom time works with your last spring frost
• The required chill hours work with your winters (especially if you live in a warmer region)
• The plant requires a pollinator (and if it does, the store sells a suitable pollinator that blooms at the same time)

If you're thinking about adding a new fruit tree or shrub to your garden this year, check out the selection at Peaceful Valley (which you can sort by hardiness zone) and use code WINTERSAVE20 to get 20% off your order. (They also have 15% off all seeds from now through March 31, no code needed.)

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P.S. Check out my favorites during Amazon's Big Spring Sale event and be sure to enter my giveaway on Instagram for your chance to win one of two $150 gift cards!