Creating Extended Season and Year-Round Vegetable Garden Calendars

2012 Utah Master Gardener Conference by Clarence Whetten

Create a Garden Goals document as part of your garden plan 1 – List the vegetables to be grown. 2 – List the uses for each vegetable. 3 – List time of year for use. This drives planting and harvest dates. 4 – Determine quantity desired for each use. This leads to quantity to be grown. 5 – Determine space required and balance desires with available space and time. 6 – List varieties to be grown. Try new varieties. 7 – Work into a garden plan for when to grow. 6 – Record results for the year and use these to refine next year’s goals and plan. Baseline Traditional Garden Calendar Bracketed by the average last spring frost date and average first fall frost date

Data is available from http://climate.usurf.usu.edu/reports/freezeDates.php or do a web search for Utah frost dates

Garden Vegetables are classified as Hardy, Semi-Hardy, Tender, and Very Tender Hardy Vegetables Include: Asparagus, Broccoli, Cabbage, Kale, Kohlrabi, Leek, Mache, Onions, Peas, Radish, Rhubarb, Spinach, Turnip Semi-Hardy Vegetables Include: Beet, Carrot, Cauliflower, Endive, Lettuce, Parsley, Parsnip, Potato, Salsify, Swiss Chard Tender Vegetables Include: Celery, Cucumber, Dry Bean, Snap Bean, Summer Squash, Sweet Corn Very Tender Vegetables Include: Cantaloupe, Eggplant, Lima Bean, Pepper, Pumpkin, Tomato, Watermelon, Winter Squash Traditional Spring Season Planting Dates Along the Wasatch Front Hardy Vegetables (from seed) March 15 – May 1 – Plant as soon as the soil dries out in the spring Semi-Hardy Vegetables (from seed) March 20 – May 1 – Plant about two weeks before the average last spring frost Tender Vegetables (from seed) May 5 – June 1 – Plant on average date of the last spring frost or about when the first apple blossoms reach full bloom Very Tender Vegetables - May 20 – June 10 – Plant about two weeks after Tender Vegetables Reference: USU Fact Sheet for Suggested Vegetable Planting Dates for the Wasatch Front

Season Extension Techniques •Raised Beds •Transplants •Mulches •Hot Caps and Cloches •Wall-O-Water •Floating Row Cover •Low Tunnels •Cold Frames and Hot Beds •High Tunnels or Hoop Houses Get to know your neighborhood weather Use http://www.wunderground.com to find a weather station near you. Hardy and semi-hardy vegetables can be moved 4 to 6 weeks to the left. Tender and very tender vegetables can be moved 2 to 4 weeks to the left. Traditional Planting Dates for Fall Harvest July 1 – August 15 (from seed) – Beet, Cabbage, Kale, Lettuce, Onion, Spinach, Turnip Learn to Start Your Own Bedding Plants

•You will want transplants at times when they are not available from the nurseries.

•You will want to grow varieties that are not locally available.

•Google Weekend Gardener for help. There are three web sites at http://www.chestnut-sw.com/ that are very good and helpful. Fall Garden •Plant hardy and semi-hardy crops from mid July through August. •Floating row cover and low tunnels will allow harvest of hardy vegetables through late November. •Crops are the same ones that were planted in the early spring garden. •Garden space is the same space used for the spring garden. High Tunnel Winter Garden •Planting times are mid August through mid September for above ground crops. •Below ground crops use fall garden schedule. •The crops need to be harvestable size by the end of November. •From mid December to mid January little growth occurs but crops are available for harvest. •Plan to water a high tunnel in the winter.

Winter Garden Planning

•For young leafy greens it takes 1 to 1.5 feet of a 30 inch wide bed to fill a 12 inch bowl or salad spinner

•From November through mid January it takes 30 days for greens to grow new leaves to harvest size

•Leave the spinach leaf stem on the plant to speed regrowth

• Plant Twice in the Fall High Tunnel •First crop is planted the same time as the extended fall garden •It will start bolting in mid February •Second crop is planted early November •This crop will germinate and stay as young seedlings through the winter •Second crop harvest will start late February and continue until outdoor extended harvest starts Year Round Salad •Start transplants in early February •Transplant into tunnel or row cover mid March •Subsequent transplants through out spring •Plant bolt resistant varieties for summer •Plant in the shade for summer •Start transplants for fall and winter garden in August •Plant seeds in high tunnel in August to early September References •Four-Season Harvest by Eliot Coleman •The Winter Harvest Handbook by Eliot Coleman •USU High Tunnel Publications •My garden website at: http://garden.uvci.com •Contact info: thegardener@uvci.com Sample Entries from My 2012 Garden Goals Document Salad Greens – Fresh from the garden from Oct – June. Enough for a daily large salad with Dinner. Spinach - 20 feet of bed in tunnel - 12 plants in early spring outdoor garden Space, Red Cardinal in tunnel add Melody in outdoor garden Arugula 6 feet of bed - only winter grown, too strong the rest of the year Leaf Lettuce 16 feet of bed in tunnel – 6 plants of 4 varieties in early spring garden Mache 8 feet of bed – only winter grown Oak Leaf, Paris Island, Red Sails, Buttercrunch Asian Greens 8 feet of bed – never plant more than two feet of a variety at a time – 4 plants of three varieties in early spring garden. Planted late summer in high tunnel, with a second crop planted at Thanksgiving - Chinese Cabbage, Komatsuna, Totsoi

Our Family Favorite Vegetable Varieties Seed is primarily purchased from Mountain Valley Seed, Johnny’s Selected Seed, Tomato Growers Supply, Gurneys and Cooks Greenhouse in Orem We try at least one new vegetable every year and try about 6 new varieties each year. This list will change but today these are our favorites. Broccoli – Marathon, Pack Man, Premium Crop Cabbage – Golden Acre, Danish Ball Head Cantaloupe – Alaskan, Super Star Celeriac – Brilliant Celery – Utah Tall, Conquistador Cucumber – Sweet Success, Armenian Garlic – German Hardy Leek - American Flag Lettuce – Red Sails, Butter Crunch, Paris Island, Winter Density, Oak Leaf Mache – Vit Onion – Utah Sweet Spanish, Walla Walla Peas – Oregon Sugar Pod Peppers Hot - Biggie Chili, NuMex Joe E. Parker, Sahuaro, Cayenne Large Thick, Cayenne Long Slim, Serrano Del Sol Peppers Sweet - Early Sunsation, Lipstick, Ace, Carmen, Blushing Beauty, Giant Marconi Spinach – Space, Red Cardinal, Melody Squash, summer – Gold rush Zucchini, Elite Zucchini Squash, winter – Waltham Butternut, Sunshine Sweet Corn – Serendipity Swiss Chard – Bright Lights Tomatoes – Cherry - Sun Sugar, Sweet Chelsea Tomatoes Determinate – Celebrity, Pol Big, Tomatoes – Paste – San Marzano, Super Italian Paste, Polish Linguisa, Olpaca, Big Momma (a

local heirloom) Ana Russian (Ox Heart) Watermelon – Crimson Sweet