We have had snowstorms this last week in Utah so I wonder if our growing season is going to start late like it did last year. There are a couple of things that we do to determine when we might be able to start planting our vegetables. First of all we keep a garden journal.You can read more about journals
here. One of the things we record in our journal is the planting dates, maturation dates, and end of season dates. This helps us to remember when we planted in previous years, and also how well it worked for us.
We like to plant new vegetables each year and our journal doesn't help us with new plants. When we run into the situation where we have never planted something before, we search out the information from our local extension office. Dale wrote a great article on extensions
here. Local extensions are extremely valuable to backyard farmers. I wanted to find out planting dates for kohlrabi this year and I found this awesome
PDF from Utah State University that gives general planting dates for a large variety of vegetables, and it shows some suggestions on what will do well in my area.
You might wonder how to find your local extension. If you go to this
USDA website you can click on your state and find your local extension. I would use them as much as you can as the information they provide is extensive, and specific to your area.
I hope to be able to start prepping our garden this weekend as some years we start beets, radishes, spinach, and other greens by mid march. It has snowed recently so I don't know for sure if the ground will be dry enough to start in the next week. We will do a post on checking to see if soil is ready to plant soon.
Have you started your garden yet? What have you done?
~Michael~
9 comments:
No planting yet, too cold and too wet, just throwing on some manure before plowing here in VA mountains. An old guy near me has plowed and planted potatoes already, not sure how he could do it.
No planting for us yet. Our fountain keeps freezing and we've had temps down in the 20's. However, we've got flat after flat of seeds started, some which have already been transplanted to bigger pots. Oh, and we're building all new raised beds which is pretty exciting.
The garden here never ends. Enjoy this time of being able to put your feet up while it lasts.
Haven't started yet, and may not get to this year, as we are looking at retirement as some point in the near or far future; depending on the whimsies of the powers that be.
Good luck with yours!
I have seeds started and planted broccoli, potatoes and chard. Happy Gardening to all!
We've got tomatoes and strawberries to harvest now. In the last week I sowed pole beans, peas, watermelon, tomatoes, lettuce and eggplant.
Happy planting everyone!
We have broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, and peas planted. I have started working on a new trellis for my raspberries. I am so thankful to be working in the garden again.
I have my beds already and plan to have carrots and onion starters. I hope to make this up this week seems the weather is fine, the sun is shining and my big beds are waiting :). I actually host a weekly gardening link up every Friday on my blog. I'd love for you to drop by and join in.
Random question for you--Do you know anything about "Permaculture". I am just learning about it and it sounds very interesting. Trying to figure out how to design and set it up in my backyard. It is suppose to be a way of gardening and LOTS of other things (one step at a time though) to help plants grow better, use water more efficiently while sustaining the earth (I know sounds really "tree huggy") but it has a lot of good points. So, just wondering if you know anything about it? Thanks
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