BATON ROUGE- After a grueling winter, residents are out and about this weekend trying to spruce up their gardens.

This winter was especially harsh on backyard flowers and gardens. Folks are beginning to repair the damage and get ready for spring.

Stephanie Elwood and a friend are planting strawberries and lemon grass at a community garden in Old South Baton Rouge.

"This provides fresh produce. It provides education for people on how to grow your own food," Elwood told WBRZ.

The cold weather this winter took a toll on the garden's vegetation. "We did lose a lot of stuff in this freeze that just happened, because it was a very long-term freeze over a lot of days under 32 degrees," she said.

Farmers across the region fervently covered their plants several times this winter as the area experienced an unusually high number of days of below-freezing temperatures.

Scott Ricca, co-owner of Clegg's Nursery, says "We had a lot of damage on plants this year. Not only the intensity of the cold, but the duration of the cold."

The arrival of the season's first monarch caterpillar at Clegg's is a sign of good weather ahead. But these plants are not out of the woods just yet. Even though the weather is warming up and the activity is picking up at Clegg's, experts warn that it's not too late in the year for another freeze.

"Always error on the side of caution. We can have a freeze into March, actually," Ricca told WBRZ.

Good weather or not, the folks at the community garden are not going to let another possible freeze stop them.

"Mother nature changes everyday and we just go with the flow," Elwood said.