Veggies for Utah? Most worthwhile

[supagirl277]

I live in northern utah, and I need some help finding the most worthwhile veggies to seed. I want to do 6 or 7 of them, but only if they are going to grow well, and I'm going to be able to use the quantity of veggies being grown. I have lots of spage to just plant whatever, but i don't want to do too much that I'm overwhelmed. Would large quantities of a few select veggies be good, or small quantities of a lot of them be good? I wouldn't use them all everyday, but it would be nice to have some variety.

[garden5]

There's a member here who's experienced with growing in Utah, but it's not be so I'll do the best that I can. I'd say that you can grow swiss chard, squash, cucumbers, radishes, lettuce, corn, beets, and possibly onions from seed without much trouble.

[supagirl277]

OH that's amazing! You just named 3/4 of the veggies i'd love to plant. Do you know who the user is?

[DoubleDogFarm]

Supa,

Take a look at this link. It's from Utah County On-line. USU Extension

http://www.utahcountyonline.org/Dept/ex ... leutah.pdf

I always like to sow few of many, instead of many of few. Who likes to eat beans 7 days a week.

[supagirl277]

Wow this is awesome! I even have a familly of five. Although I don't think I am going to need that much haha

[DoubleDogFarm]

True, You don't need to grow everything on the list.

It has all the recommended varieties, by name, for your area and all the cultural information for them.

[cynthia_h]

Are you familiar with the Sunset Western Garden Book? The Sunset climate zone system will help you select the vegetables (and cultivars/varieties) with the best chances of success in your specific climate zone, as well as when to plant and expect to harvest them.

The Sunset climate zone system is much more specific (and helpful, at least in the western states and provinces) than the USDA Hardiness Zones, since it incorporates many more parameters. You've mentioned elsewhere that you're in northern Utah, so your most likely Sunset zones are 1A, 2A, 2B, 3A, or 3B. (These are the zones from Provo north.)

Use them as a guide, and expect it to be about 85% reliable. In my own case, Sunset was an excellent guide for my previous house, but for this house--with its strange microclimate--it took me a couple of active gardening seasons to figure out that this house doesn't know it's in Sunset Zone 17. It thinks it's in a cooler zone, so...I grow cooler-zone veggies, and they do quite well.

This has been a short summary of my usual "Sunset speech/shpiel." If you *really* want the whole thing, I'm sure a search on my author name and "Sunset climate zone" will find a few iterations of it for you!

Happy gardening.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[DoubleDogFarm]

Cynthia,

Do you use your own Cooporative Extension. Link below. They usually have a lot of good local information.


http://cecontracosta.ucdavis.edu/Agricu ... lowers.htm

[cynthia_h]

Thanks for the link; unfortunately, I have looked there in the past (maybe two or three years ago?) and found nothing helpful for my situation. Maybe the Co-Op Extension is useful for other things in other places, but in Contra Costa County, there is a lot of commercial growing on the far eastern edge. I live on the far western edge of the county.

The entire extension website, with the single exception of the Master Gardeners call-in service for problems, is geared towards large-scale growers. There are no recommendations for home gardeners on what to plant, when to plant it, etc. These data are left for publications like Sunset's Western Garden Book to cover--yet another reason why I recommend it so strongly: our tax monies support the Extension Service, but the only service home gardeners can receive from it (in my county, at least) is the problem-solving from the Master Gardeners. *sigh*

I know that things are structured differently elsewhere, though, so gardeners should try the extension service, esp. for weather/climate recommendations in a new location and if they have more than (ahem) 96 sq.ft. of veggie growing space.

Cynthia

[jal_ut]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I garden in Cache County Utah. We are a bit higher elevation than you there in Utah County. You may have a bit longer season than I do.

I have put together a short paper on the varieties and planting times that work well for me. You are welcome to look at it. Click

I plant most things from seed. The exceptions are tomatoes and peppers. I do plant onions from seed, sets and plants.

I would plant what you like to eat. Have a great garden.

[supagirl277]

Are you familiar with the Sunset Western Garden Book? The Sunset climate zone system will help you select the vegetables (and cultivars/varieties) with the best chances of success in your specific climate zone, as well as when to plant and expect to harvest them.

The Sunset climate zone system is much more specific (and helpful, at least in the western states and provinces) than the USDA Hardiness Zones, since it incorporates many more parameters. You've mentioned elsewhere that you're in northern Utah, so your most likely Sunset zones are 1A, 2A, 2B, 3A, or 3B. (These are the zones from Provo north.)

Use them as a guide, and expect it to be about 85% reliable. In my own case, Sunset was an excellent guide for my previous house, but for this house--with its strange microclimate--it took me a couple of active gardening seasons to figure out that this house doesn't know it's in Sunset Zone 17. It thinks it's in a cooler zone, so...I grow cooler-zone veggies, and they do quite well.

This has been a short summary of my usual "Sunset speech/shpiel." If you *really* want the whole thing, I'm sure a search on my author name and "Sunset climate zone" will find a few iterations of it for you!

Happy gardening.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

We're more of in the 5a or 5b area of Utah and we actually do have that book, so we will definitely look in it, thanks!