Gardeners have waited all winter and it's finally here.

It's time to plant seeds in hopes of beautiful flower gardens and bountiful vegetable crops this summer.

Country Living and Garden Centre supervisor Jan Muller says it's important to start with pots and tools that have been cleaned of debris from previous years.

This crucial step can help ensure the health of this year's batch of seedlings by preventing the spread of disease.

"If they're starting the seeds in their greenhouses they just want to make sure they have that all that set up and everything has been cleaned so it doesn't have any diseases in the trays," she says. "And then picking out their seeds to find out what they're after. They all have different times to begin, so it just depends on what they're growing."

Muller says Gardens featuring a mix of wildflowers are becoming increasingly popular and they can help entice some winged visitors to backyards.

"I find a lot of people this year are going to do more wildflower seeds," she says. "People are really trying to bring back the bees and the butterflies so they're doing a lot of wildflower mixes. There's one that's called a butterfly milkweed that's going to be a big one this year for the butterflies."

Muller says the popularity of planting vegetable gardens is also on the rise.

She says People are enjoying the experience of growing their own vegetable gardens while, at the same time, growing backyard produce can also help cut back on grocery bills.

"When it comes to vegetables, people will grow just about anything," Muller says. "We saw a big increase on seeds last year especially for vegetables and just buying plants in general. Anything to do with growing your own vegetables and fruit was quite huge."

But when it comes to growing vegetables, some types do better than others due to the length of our growing season.

Muller says carrots and lettuce are traditionally good performers while others, like broccoli and corn, require more heat to grow and so should be started earlier.