How to warm soil in the garden

Are you as excited to get your garden going as I am? The soil temperature is still a little bit cold here in Utah, but it is not impossible to start growing a garden now or in the near future. The soil temperature is one of the things you need to have warm enough for the plants to grow, and seeds to germinate. Here are a few ideas for you.

1. Use row cover. Row cover is a fabric that is breathable and lets water drain through, and also lets the sunlight through. The best thing is that it holds in the warmth from the sun and raises the temperature about 10 degrees F.
2. Wall-of-water is another way to plant tender plants early. We use them every year  for tomatoes and plant them about a month and a half earlier than they would be able to be planted. It uses a green house effect and stores the warmth of the sun in the water tubes surrounding the plants, then releases it at night when the temperatures drop.
3. plastic cover can be placed over the soil a few weeks before you plan to plant. This is not breathable or water penetrable, but the sun can penetrate, and the plastic holds on to the warmth of the sun and raises the soil temperature about 10 degrees F. But you will just have to remove it, or cut holes to plant your plants in the soil. Just remember when using it, that it is not water penetrable, so you have to make sure and water the plants by hand, or set up an automatic watering system. After the temperatures warm up in the summer, you will need to take off this plastic or your plants might get too hot, and dry out quickly.
4. You can use a combination of the plastic cover and the wall of water. Warm up the soil first, cut a hole and plant your plants, then place a wall of water around the plant to help protect from frost and cold weather. This is a good way to start squash early.
5. Cold frames are another great way to grow cold weather plants even in the cold winter months. Here is a great article on cold frames.

Happy Gardening!

Why Grow From Seed?

What are the benefits of growing your own vegetables from seed verses buying them as a transplant? There are many reasons, but here are a few to help you decide.
Is one of the reasons that you are growing your garden to save money? Then think about how much a packet of seeds cost and how much a transplant costs. It usually is about the same but with a seed packet you will get many plants, and only one from a transplant.
Another reason might be that you want to grow your plant fully organic, and when you grow a plant you have no control over the nutritional input in the plant when you purchase the plant already grown.
There are many fun varieties of vegetables including some heirloom vegetables that you can harvest your own seeds from. You can have some fun variety if you purchase seeds that you wont be able to find at a nursery.

There are some vegetables that are so easy to grow from seed that it is a waste of money to get them as transplants. Also corn, sunflowers, lettuce, radishes, carrots and other root veggies, grow from seed sown directly in the garden much better than growing them from transplants.
Growing a garden is an amazing experience, just add the satisfaction of growing from seed, it makes it even a better experience that you will only know by growing for yourself.
True that growing from seed will have a small learning curve, but if you do your homework, after a few years you will be a pro.
Happy Gardening!

Garden Design Contest!

We are going to have a contest to see who can come up with the best garden design. If you win, you will win a full year subscription to the online garden planner!

To participate, you will need to sign up for a free account at The Gardener's Spot Garden Planner. Choose the setting to allow others to see your plan in the account page, and then when you are finished designing it, there is a tab at the top to publish it. You can publish it to Facebook on The Gardener's Spot Facebook page. Be sure to "like" us while you are there, and tell all your friends about it too! Then those who receive the most votes (likes) by February 29th will win the free membership. Here is a short video to help you get started. Good luck, and start planning!

Planning your garden

One of the most important steps in planting a garden is to plan. If you do not plan your garden, you might forget to plant things at the correct time or in the wrong place. The first step is deciding what you want to plant, then map it out. We like to use an online tool called The Gardener's Spot Vegetable Garden Planner. All you need to know is what you want to plant, and the size of garden you have. Then it is easy to draw out the plan in the garden planner, and then simply add the vegetables. What I love so much about it is the reminders that are sent by email telling you when it is time to start the plant from seed or outdoors. Then the next year when you are planning it out again, it will help you know how to rotate successfully. It is all based on the frost dates from your area, and is thus personalized for your own garden. You can try it free for 30 days with no obligation to pay for the yearly subscription which is only $25. It is such a great tool, and I highly recommend it. So now the only question is, what are you going to plant this year?