AMHERST, N.Y. — Want to know how a bad winter it was? Just ask Barbara Cracchiolo.

"It's been brutal. I mean, we lived in Alaska for a while, my husband and I, when he was in the service. This was worse," said North Tonawanda resident Barbara Cracchiolo.

Now with the temperatures slowly inching their way into the 50s, Cracchiolo is itching to get into her garden.  

"We're planting arborvitaes along the fence and basically coloring up the yard with whatever's here that'll look nice," said Cracchiolo.

That's why she came to Hi-Way Garden Center in Amherst Sunday.

"Everybody's just itching to jump out of their skin to get outside and get to work in the gardens and in their yards, and just to do things outside," said Jack Olson, the owner of Hi-Way Garden Center.   

Olson says the cold April did push back the spring gardening schedule a few weeks, but once the nighttime temperatures start to reach 40 to 50 degrees, you should be able to start planting.

"They want to get their beds prepared, they want to cultivate them, get out there, clean out all the old stuff from the winter and work on these a little bit if they can. Like for vegetable gardens they can turn it over if it's not too wet, and that'll start to warm up the soil and get things ready," he said.

Olson also says keep an eye on your perennials. 

"Some people don't know the difference. An annual, you have to plant every year. A perennial, it comes back, but it doesn't mean that it'll come back every year. If you get a really rough winter, it could kill off some perennials. So we could see some shrubs and some perennials dry out and die off after a winter like this," said Olson.

That being said, despite a rough winter, Olson says with above average temperatures forecast for the next two months, the gardening future is looking bright.  

"We're going to see a really, kind of a perfect season where we don't go right from winter to summer as we have some years. We’re going to actually have a spring and a nice slow lead up to it. And that's a good way for people to do their planting, and I think it's going to be a spectacular year," said Olson.