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Notice that the user’s frost free date is automatically displayed. This way, the user doesn’t have to figure out what their frost free date is, VegeNag displays it for them from the National Weather Service data for the respective zip code.

The best part, in my opinion, is farther down the page on the planting guide.

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All these “Key Planting Dates” are dynamically inserted based on the users location. No need to go figure this information out anymore. Better yet, it calculates it based on the specific plant, therefore, when you select something other than cabbage, in this case, you will get different dates.

I can’t tell you how excited I am for this new feature. I think it will help a ton of people. Click here to sign up for a free account.

So what do you think?

Send suggestions and emails to alex at vegenag.com

Here is a link to the site VegeNag.com

Anyway, go to the show page to find out more or just go to itunes, under the podcast section do a search for KSL greenhouse and you will find it.

The reason why I like their catalog so much is because I felt like they had a lot of varieties that other catalogs do not. Many of the mainstream catalogs all seem to carry the same stuff with little deviation. This one filled in a gap I was looking for with special varieties. For example, I have been looking for a really early broccoli and cauliflower to grow in the spring since we have such a short spring crop season here. This one provided me with varieties for both that are about 10 days earlier than ones I could find in other catalogs. I also found a number of banana pepper options, most others give you one.

I also found really good prices. For example, I want to grow a mild or sweet jalapeno this year since I love the taste, but not the hot. They have a variety called Fooled You Pepper for $1.65 a packet. Stokes also came out this year with a sweet jalapeno called Dulce, yet it costs $5.75 a packet. As you can see, they are a great option.

I have updated my seed catalog post from last year so that you have a good list to choose from. If you are new to vegetable gardening, then you should click the link and order all the catalogs you want. Even if you aren’t new, you may find one that serves you much I like I found PineTree Garden seeds.

They give advisories on lawn, fruit trees, vegetables, fruits and ornamental plants. I would advise signing up for this free service for anyone that spends any time or money trying to grow plants.

Plant pest advisory link

I find this highly informative, useful and critical. I hope you will too.

Utah has a great website for this. www.utahpests.usu.edu

I have throughly read the Home Orchard Pest Management Guide since we have 8 fruit trees in our yard. Fruit trees are the highest maintenance producer in your yard so it is very important to read and follow this resource if you have fruit trees. It may seem overwhelming, but this guide actually makes it pretty easy to understand since there are great pictures to describe stages of growth, pest and disease types.

Now is the time to learn because the best time to manage pests is now before the problems can begin. Hopefully you read my post on dormant sprays since you should have already done that for some trees and should be doing it now for others.

I know that I refer to these all of the time. I have even printed each sheet and put them in a binder. Well worth it in my opinion.

First, what types of vegetables can you plant.

In Utah, like in many areas, you can get away with three different gardens, depending on where you live. A spring garden, a summer garden and a fall garden. Some areas of Utah have a much shorter season than others so you must apply these basic principles to your individual circumstances. That being said…

Spring garden- You want to plant vegetables that don’t mind occasional frosty temperatures, some snowfall and cooler temperatures.

• Peas
• Carrots
• Radishes
• Spinach
• Lettuce
• Onions
• Broccoli
• Cauliflower
• Swiss Chard
• Beets
• And more

The time to plant these vary with the weather, but you can plant them as soon as you can work the soil. You also need the soil to be warm enough around 40 degrees to get the seeds up. In my area, I can sometimes plant 1st of March, but this can be too early. Generally, mid March is the earliest. April 15th is probably the day that most should shoot for with these vegetables, earlier if sowing seeds directly into the garden. Even better than this is to plant the seeds indoors and then transplant them when it is an ideal time or buy starts from the nursery. Regardless, there are some seeds that aren’t ideal for transplanting like root crops (carrots, beets, radishes). Onions, broccoli, cauliflower, leaf lettuce, spinach, swiss chard are all good ones to start inside.

In fact, if you don’t get them in early enough then you won’t really get a crop for your Spring garden. A good example is broccoli and cauliflower. You really take a chance in the spring garden with these because if it gets too hot too early then they will bolt and go to seed and no longer head. This is also true of head lettuce which is hard to do in the Spring garden.

Summer garden- These crops need the heat, long days, and can’t take a frost. With these crops you need to be sure you plant them after your frost free date. I have provided the link to Utah frost free dates. Here are the frost free dates if you live outside Utah.

• Beans
• Corn
• Melons
• Cucumbers
• Squash
• Peppers
• Tomatoes
• Pumpkins
• And more

Generally, May 15th is when I plant these summer crops, sometimes I will plant under hotcaps earlier, in order to get a better jump on the season. You will want space reserved for these crops since your Spring garden crops won’t be harvest yet. You will also have these crops into the Fall so that is why you plant your Fall garden where your Spring garden was located except maybe for onions which will need most of the year to mature.

Fall Garden- This is a good time in Utah to get all those Spring vegetables that don’t do well in the Spring, like the ones I mentioned above. In fact, usually your Fall garden will be much more productive than your Spring garden. In the Fall, you can plant all those listed (direct seed or starts) under the Spring garden. Just remember that you must start head lettuce indoors or buy starts since head lettuce will not germinate when temperatures are over 80 degrees.

You will start to plant some of your fall garden around July 1st depending on the vegetable. Fast maturing vegetables like radishes or early varieties of any vegetable will need to wait so that they don’t mature when it is too hot. The way to know is to determine your first frost date of the Fall and then work backward to make sure that the plant will mature before then. If you have a 65 day carrot and your first frost generally happens Oct 15th then you would want to plant around the first of August. Most of these fall vegetables can take mild frosts, but plan it so that you don’t cut it too close.

Remember, to plan your garden to keep these crops segregated so that retilling for your Fall garden in July won’t ruin your summer crop and so forth.

Here is a great link for planting guides and dates when to plant

Utah varieties and planting guide

They also host the master gardener program that is essentially devoted to teaching gardening skills to master gardeners so that they can volunteer their time for people like us. Most local extension offices have volunteer master gardeners on staff to answer your questions. So here are some links to provide more resources for your toolbox.

• Utah State Extension
• Utah County local office
• Master Gardener program
• Utah State vegetable gardening fact sheets
• Utah Pest fact sheets

Hopefully these resources will help your gardening efforts like it has mine.

http://extension.usu.edu/files/publications/publication/HG_313.pdf

Note: This was done in 1996 so there are many new varieties that you should consider.