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Kale is a cold-hardy vegetable that can be planted in the early spring.

Courtesy Meredith Seaver, USU Extension

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Peas are a cool-season vegetable that can be planted in the early spring.

Courtesy Meredith Seaver, USU Extension

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Powdery mildew can shorten the productive life of many vegetables. Looking for disease resistance when choosing vegetable varieties can reduce your work and improve your yields.

Courtesy Meredith Seaver, USU Extension

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Garlic is a very hardy plant. It's normal for green sprouts to show up in late winter.

Courtesy Meredith Seaver, USU Extension

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I’m going to grow a spring vegetable garden this year. When should I get started? What are the best vegetables and varieties to grow here?

Spinach, radishes, garden peas, kale, broccoli and cabbage are just some of the hardy spring crops grown in Utah County gardens either by seed or transplant, depending on the specific crop.

It’s still a little early to plant. Most garden soils are still too wet for soil preparation, and soil temperatures are still too cold for good germination for all but the hardiest vegetables. Our actual “safe” starting date varies a little from year to year. The middle of March is the usual start of the spring garden season here. By the last week of March, we can usually start planting some of the semi-hardy vegetables like beets, carrots, lettuce, and potatoes.

Choose your varieties based on your garden goals and conditions. Keep them in mind while you read the variety descriptions as you’re browsing for seeds and transplants. You don’t want to plant a variety that does well in cool, humid summers because our summers are hot and dry, or a long, slender carrot variety if your garden soil leans more toward heavy clay, no matter how pretty those carrots look in a catalog. A large vigorous squash plant won’t get along well with other plants in a smaller raised bed garden.

While you’re looking for the right varieties for your garden, also look for disease and pest resistance. Choosing resistant varieties can reduce the amount of work you do in your garden, save you money by reducing the need for chemical controls, and extend your harvest by keeping plants healthy longer into the season. For example, a powdery mildew resistant summer squash variety can continue to produce squash for a few weeks after susceptible varieties have succumbed to the disease.

You may not be able to plant yet, but there are still things you can be doing for your garden during the next several weeks while you’re choosing and ordering the right varieties for you.

Read about the pests and diseases that are common with the vegetables you plan to plant. Knowing how to prevent problems, what to look for during the growing season, and how to control any pests and diseases that might show up will make it easier to manage any problems that do come along.

Check the soil moisture in your garden every day or two. Once the soil is dry enough to work with, add compost to the soil and smooth out the seed bed so it’s ready for planting.

Keep an eye on the weather forecast and cover your planting areas securely with tarps or inexpensive drop cloth if rain or snow is expected. This can prevent soggy soil that keeps you out of the garden when conditions are finally warm enough for planting.

The garlic in my garden have sprouted. Should I cover them with more soil to protect the shoots from freezing weather?

This is something you don’t need to worry about. Garlic is one of the hardiest vegetables we grow, and it usually sends up shoots before anything else is happening in the garden. My own garlic and shallots had some green sprouts last fall, which is very common for these vegetable plants. The sprouts went through the winter with just a little frost damage, and now there is new green growth on the plants, probably just like what you’re seeing in your garden. Could our plants be nipped by frost in the next several weeks? Sure! But that won’t set the plants back at all.

You can expect a nice harvest of large heads of garlic if you give your garlic plants good care for the next few months.

Begin watering deeply and regularly, but not frequently, once your garden soil dries out in the late spring. Water should move about 12″ down into the soil each time you water. A 1-inch layer of compost or a similar organic mulch will help conserve moisture and reduce the amount of work you need to do by reducing the number of weeds in your garlic bed.

Also, make sure your garlic plants have the nitrogen they need. Use about a half-pound of ammonium sulfate (21-0-0) or a comparable organic nitrogen source for every 100 square feet in mid-April and about half that amount again in late May.

Your garlic will be ready to harvest and air cure when the leaves begin to yellow in mid-summer. Harvest all your plants before the leaves have completely dried.

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