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Vegetable Gardening in Idaho Planning your garden Short-season vegetable gardening Harvesting and storing your vegetables Pest
and disease management Crops to grow For more information
Successful gardening starts with good planning. Start by critically evaluating your garden site and climate. The number of vegetables available to gardeners is huge. Unfortunately, not all of them will be suited to your site. Properly designing your garden, preparing the site, and choosing crops and varieties well adapted to your soils and climate will provide an excellent start on a successful and enjoyable gardening experience. Some questions you must first ask yourself include: What vegetables do my family and I like to eat? Which of those vegetables are adapted to my climate and soil? How much space do I have available for a garden? How much time and effort do I want to spend gardening? Planning Your Garden Once you have answers to these questions, you can begin planning what to grow and how to lay out and prepare your garden beds. Although the task of planning a garden can become overwhelming, you have resources available to make the task much quicker and easier. An excellent guide and resource is Planning an Idaho Vegetable Garden info.ag.uidaho.edu/resources/PDFs/BUL0775.pdf Short-Season Vegetable Gardening If you live in one of Idaho's many cooler areas, there are things you can do to extend your vegetable growing season and raise crops that would normally be restricted to warmer climates. To learn how, download Short-Season Vegetable Gardening info.ag.uidaho.edu/Resources/PDFs/PNW0497.pdf Harvesting and Storing Your Vegetables To make the most of your garden bounty, you may want to check out Harvesting and Storing Fresh Garden Vegetables info.ag.uidaho.edu/pdf/BUL/BUL0617.pdf Pest, Disease, and Weed Management Unfortunately, gardening is not without its challenges. Fortunately, you have information readily available on identifying and controlling many potential garden problems: An Online Guide to Plant Disease Control http://plant-disease.ippc.orst.edu/Crops to Grow Climate diversity in Idaho makes it impossible to create one list of suitable vegetable crops that will work for everyone. Gardeners in the warm valley locations of Southwestern Idaho can grow many warm-season crops such as melons, okra, and sweet potatoes. Gardeners in the high valley locations may have the most success with frost-hardy crops such as lettuces, cabbage, broccoli, carrots, etc. Growing practices also vary from region to region. However, even gardeners in the coldest regions can enjoy homegrown tomatoes with a little effort. University of Kentucky Extension publishes a good guide on Season Extension Techniques here http://www.uky.edu/Ag/NewCrops/introsheets/extension.pdf. If you have specific questions about growing conditions where you live, ask an experienced neighbor, a certified Idaho Master Gardener (http://www.ag.uidaho.edu/mg), or contact your local county extension office http://www.ag.uidaho.edu/mg/counties.htm The university of Idaho has published production guides for many different vegetable crops. Some of these are available online, including:
Grow Your Own: Beans and Peas PNW 495 - available on line info.ag.uidaho.edu/resources/PDFs/PNW0495.pdf
Here is a list of publications available in hard copy from which you can choose:
Growing Asparagus - CIS 803
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