GENEVA, N.Y. — After one of the mildest winters in years, gardeners might be tempted to start planting. Experts, however, say you might want to hold off for just a bit longer.  

For Steve Reiners, dirt is part of a green thumb ritual, a ritual for all gardeners as winter turns to spring.

"As I tell people when I lecture about gardening, and I've been doing this for 50 years, every year I’ve learned something new," he said.

Reiners is a horticulture professor at Cornell University’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Winter’s return in late March and again in early April brought a lesson for anyone planting anything. There is such a thing as too soon.

"I think everybody looks forward to spring," he said. "Sometimes we look forward to it too much where we can't wait. You learn patience as a gardener, because if you try things too early, you could lose it with a frost."

At Cornell AgriTech in Geneva, Reiners reinforces that, inside the many greenhouses which house a variety of vegetables, everything has a season.

"We have warm season crops. We have cool season crops," he explained. "And sometimes for beginning gardeners that confuses people."

An unseasonably warm winter added to that. But the last frost in most of New York generally happens in mid-May, so while now may be a good time to start vegetable plants indoors, Reiners warns against jumping the gardening gun.

"Yeah, you look at general tendencies. Things are getting warmer, but we really can't say you could plant those things earlier yet," he said.

If you need more advice on the best time to start those plants in your garden, Reiners says your local branch of Cornell Cooperative Extension is a great place to start.  

It’s been said there are no gardening mistakes, only experiments. That’s not entirely true — especially now.

"There's a season for everything," said Reiners. "Just be patient."