Newbe Intro

Hi,
I am going to set up my SFG this year and I am new to Utah gardening. Any help on food plants in Utah weather would be appreciated greatly. I look forward to many years of SFG. Boyerrc

Hi and welcome to the forum!!! Glad you found us, I am sure Tricia will be along shortly to help you with Utah advice!!

Welcome to sfg and love your cat avatar!
You've come to the right place for support and information.

Boyerrc wrote:Hi,
I am going to set up my SFG this year and I am new to Utah gardening. Any help on food plants in Utah weather would be appreciated greatly. I look forward to many years of SFG. Boyerrc

Hello ,
Welcome to the site do you have the book mentioned in my strap lines ? It helps if we end up all singing from the same song sheets so to speak.

There is a second edition out in Feb 2013 which can be pre ordered from the likes of the website and Amazon .

If you have not started a compost heap yet now is the time to get one going so that you can have your own compost sooner than later , as the quality compost is really at the heart of our "All new square foot gardening " system .

If you use the site search for " how strong is your back bone " & " composting 101 "there is lots of helpful info in them about how to get it going & making a balanced compost that is beneficial to your SFG' ing.

Hi from another newbie. - Studying hard and working on my planting calendar. (Ever so much more fun than doing what I should be doing...like cleaning the kitchen.) I took a look at the USDA zone map for Utah - generally the same temps as we have in Missouri but more mixed up. We go for the layered look here , but you all are more psychedelic. I'm in Zone 5. Anyway, in my totally uneducated opinion, I'd say you can grow pretty much anything you want. If I catch the concept correctly, it's about timing--knowing when to plant it and when to yank it out so something else can have the space. I'm so excited! - I wake up in the middle of the night thinking about my garden-to-be!

Boyerrc wrote:Hi,
I am going to set up my SFG this year and I am new to Utah gardening. Any help on food plants in Utah weather would be appreciated greatly. I look forward to many years of SFG. Boyerrc

Welcome Boyercc! Pretty sure Utah is where Mel Bartholomew himself gardens. Should be able to grow anything in the book. Like czechens wrote (welcome to you too, BTW!), it's not a matter of what you plant but when you plant it.

Just look up your first and last frost dates on this website: http://davesgarden.com/guides/freeze-frost-dates/, all you need is your zip code. Then you'll be able to see how long your gardening season is (the time you have for plants to grow after all danger of frost has passed in the spring and before they'll be killed off by frost in the fall). That's pretty much all the information you need when browsing seed packages or catalogs and deciding what to grow.

If the time between your last frost in the spring and your first frost in the fall is only 80 days for instance, you wouldn't plant long season crops that need 90-120 days to mature. Just an example. And only true of things that have to be direct sowed and can't be started indoors first.

If you already knew all of that, and are looking for specific varieties that fellow Utahns like and recommend, then I would suggest talking with your local extension agent (the Master Gardeners), or the staff at your local nurseries. And you can find your specific region here and ask too of course! Welcome! And post pictures of your set up as you get it going please! We love pics.

Thanks for all the good advice from all that have replied. I am excited for all this snow to go away so I can get my boxes placed where they need to be and get busy planning what I will plant this year. I have wanted to do this for years and now that I am retired its is going to happen. Keep all the good info coming I read and remember it all. Thanks again.