Red Butte Vegetable Container Workshop

Do you lack sufficient sun or garden space for a vegetable or herb garden? Many herbs and vegetables thrive in containers, which can be positioned or moved to take advantage of sunny spots.

Red Butte Garden is offering a Container Gardening Workshop. Registration and fee are required. Learn which vegetables and herbs do well in containers, as well as tricks to keep them producing throughout summer and into fall. You will also have the opportunity to plant the vegetables of your choice into a 15-inch container for take-home enjoyment.

To learn more: Red Butte Garden

Time to Tame the Raspberry Jungle

"Raspberry pruning is a stickery job,and the instructions in the books seem so confusing. But a lack of pruning leads to tangled, unproductive, disease-prone raspberry jungles. When your worst winter weather subsides, you can tame your raspberry jungle and turn it back into a respectable patch."

To learn more: Read Sally G. Miller's article Dave's Garden

Design, Irrigation, Planting and Maintenance of Landscapes

At the Conservation Garden Park Website you can find the step-by-step learning exhibits in each themed path to help you through the design, irrigation, planting and maintenance of your landscape.

What to plant?

Have you ever wondered what plants grow best in Northern Utah? Which plants are water-wise? The Conservation Garden Park has the answers.

"Our plant database has over 800 plants that can be found throughout the Garden. Plants can be searched by common plant names, botanical names, and other attributes. The plants are ideal for northern Utah and many of them can be used for xeriscaping and other waterwise landscapes."

To learn more: Find Plants

You can also view examples of different landscapes.

To learn more: Example Landscapes

Growing Relationships - Part #3

Gardens create places of natural beauty and offer opportunities for strengthening friendships and teaching our children the law of the harvest. Growing a garden can help us become more self-reliant. But in the following accounts, three members describe blessings they have received from gardening that go beyond food—blessings that have enriched their relationships with family, Church members, and friends.

A Place for Beauty
Sarah Fulton, California, USA

My parents taught my six siblings and me the importance of growing our own food and beautifying our surroundings. Wherever I live, growing a garden and creating beauty in my environment are things that bring me a most satisfying kind of joy.

In 2004 I moved to Africa for two years and attended a ward that had a few acres of undeveloped landscape as part of the property. As a ward, we turned that land into 20 smaller plots for families to grow their own vegetables. The garden was a blessing in my life and the lives of the members because we were able to supplement the food we purchased with food from the garden.

A few years later, my sister and I lived together in Brooklyn, New York, USA. With some faith, we found an apartment to rent with a backyard that needed to be developed. With time and a lot of help from friends, the backyard became an oasis in the city. As much as I love growing my own food, I’ve realized that creating a space of beauty to share with others has brought the greatest satisfaction. Our garden was a place where people could come to relax, enjoy the peace and quiet, and remove themselves from the noise and hustle of the city. I’m reminded of what President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, Second Counselor in the First Presidency, taught the Relief Society: “As you take the normal opportunities of your daily life and create something of beauty and helpfulness, you improve not only the world around you but also the world within you.”

Growing Relationships

Tomatoes

Tomatoes are a warm season vegetable that prefers sunny locations and fertile, well-drained soil. For more information on tomatoes, click here.

VARIETIES: Tomatoes can be categorized by maturity class (early, midseason or late), fruit size (cherry, pear, plum or large), plant size (determinate, semi-determinate or indeterminate), fruit color (red, pink yellow or orange), or use (fresh, process or dual use).  Most varieties will grow well in Utah but not all are available.

CULTIVATION:

Soil Preparation:  Before planting, incorporate 2 to 4 inches of well-composted organic matter and apply 4 to 6 cups of all purpose fertilizer per 100 square feet.  For more information on soil preparation, click here.

Planting:  Plant tomato seeds 4 to 6 inches apart, ½ deep in the soil, and 18 inches apart in the row. After the seedlings have two leaves, thin to one to two plants per clump. Tomatoes should be planted once soil temperatures reach 60°F or when frost danger has passed.

Irrigation: Water tomatoes deeply and infrequently while trying to maintain even soil moisture. About 1 to 2 inches of water are required per week.  Use drip irrigation, if possible, to conserve water.  Applying mulch around the plant also helps conserve soil moisture and reduces weed growth.  Moisture fluctuations can cause blossom-end rot.  For more information on watering, click here.

Fertilization:  Avoid heavy fertilization with tomatoes, which encourages excessive foliage growth and delays fruit maturity.  Side dress tomato plants with a nitrogen fertilizer, using ½ tablespoon per plant at four and eight weeks after transplanting.  For more information on fertilizing, click here.

Harvest:  Tomato fruits require 25 to 35 days to mature from flowering, depending on the temperature and variety.  Pick fruits when they are fully colored, but firm for the best flavor and quality.  At the end of the season, harvest all fruits that are mature, green or colored slightly.    

COMMON PESTS AND DISEASES: Aphids, cabbage worms, loopers and wilt diseases are common pests of tomatoes.  Appropriate insecticides at seeding or strong water streams are both effective ways to control these pests.  For more information on controlling pests and diseases, click here.

To learn more: USU Extension Service

How to Design a Flower Container Garden

Gardening with containers allows you the opportunity to experiment with color combinations and plant choices before committing to those plants in the garden. There are many ways to plant containers, and that can be quite intimidating, especially for beginners.

Combine Various Plants
The easiest way to begin is to combine these categories of plants: thriller, filler and spiller.
"You want to have a bold, upright, architectural plant; that's the thriller," says garden designer Steve Silk. "It really gets your attention."

The filler is the plant with medium height in the pot, or the next step down from the thriller. The spiller tumbles out of the edge of the container and falls toward the ground.

When considering plants to use as your thrillers, fillers and spillers, think about their texture, fragrance and color combinations. Individually, each plant conveys color, texture, shape, and dazzle. Yet when combined in one container or a grouping of pots, examine how the plants interact with each other. Do certain colors in one plant bring out subtle complementary colors in another? How do the various leaf shapes, sizes and textures carry through the container plantings? Is there an underlying theme that connects all the plants together?

Choose a Thriller
So how do you combine form and function into a fabulous container? Start with your focal point, or thriller. This is the plant that provides architectural structure in the pot. "Thrillers are the big, bold element, so look for shapes that are strong and pronounced," says Steve. Good options for thrillers are bananas, elephant ears, cannas and ornamental grasses.

Choose a Filler
Fillers are the plants in the middle that connect the thrillers to the spillers. "Fillers are mounding, billowy plants that I like to put around the thriller. They disguise the base of the thriller and fill up the pot with neat shapes," says Steve. Consider using plants of moderate size, such as coleus, pentas and lantana.

Choose a Spiller
Spillers are the final element to consider when designing your pots. They cascade to the ground, softening the edges of the pot and anchoring it in place. They provide a colorful skirt around the combination of thrillers and fillers. Sweet potato vine, million bells (Calibrachoa) and verbena are good examples of trailing plants.

Select a Container
Before selecting a container, think about where you want to put it in the landscape. Will it soften the corner of a patio? Do you want to place it within a grouping of containers? These are important options to consider when choosing a pot and will help to determine if you need small eight-inch pots or big four-foot containers. You should also consider color combinations, formal vs. informal, style, access to a water source, general care and maintenance, and plans for winter care.

Plant Your Container
Good soil is vital in containers. Steve recommends using a mixture of one part high-quality potting soil, one part compost and one part shredded pine bark.

Once the soil is in place, start planting the container. You can assemble the container in any way you see fit, but it's helpful to plant the biggest plant, the thriller, first so you don't have to make room for it later. Then add the fillers around the base of the thriller, followed by the spillers trailing over the edge of the pots.

As you arrange the plants in the pot, symmetry isn't essential, but picking up color echoes to tie the plants together is always nice. The thrillers, fillers and spillers concept works the same for small and large pots as well as pots clustered together in groupings.

Water the pots as needed and feed with a liquid or slow-release fertilizer every two to three weeks.

To learn more (and see photos): How to Design a Container Garden

Contain Yourself! Growing Vegetable Gardens in Pots.

By Emily Hodgson-Soule And Helen Hodgson | For The Salt Lake Tribune

Using containers can save time and space.

As city dwellers, we never seem to have enough of two things: space and time. So when the growing season beckons, what’s a busy urban gardener to do? Growing edible crops in pots may be the answer.


Planting in containers is a relatively easy task, and one that affords a lot of freedom and flexibility, especially when compared with the hours it takes to prepare and plant a traditional garden plot.

Choosing the right location for a traditional garden is critical, but with container gardening, "you can have your garden adapt to you," says Nathan Gerber, an advanced master gardener based out of the Utah State University Extension Office at Thanksgiving Point.

Carving out a plot that provides vegetables with a minimum of six to eight hours of daily sunshine may be a challenge, but if the location of your container garden isn’t perfect, all you have to do is move the pots.

What you need » In its simplest form, growing a successful container garden requires only six things: seeds or starts, suitable containers, consistent moisture, container soil, regular fertilization and full sun. Given these basic necessities, vegetables that are traditionally grown in the ground can be grown in pots instead, with few exceptions. And your choices aren’t restricted to "bush," "compact" or "determinate" vegetables, either. Although these varieties have been bred specifically to grow well in small spaces, full-size vegetables will also thrive in pots as long as they are treated well.

Just about anything can house a vegetable, but the containers you use must be able to sustain the crops you plant: asking a full-size tomato to bear fruit while living in a one-gallon container is an unreasonable demand, and you will be disappointed. At minimum, full-size tomatoes need three-gallon pots, and bigger is always better. "Put your money into pots that are a little bigger and put your money into [quality] soil — you’ll have much better success," Gerber said.



What you need » In its simplest form, growing a successful container garden requires only six things: seeds or starts, suitable containers, consistent moisture, container soil, regular fertilization and full sun. Given these basic necessities, vegetables that are traditionally grown in the ground can be grown in pots instead, with few exceptions. And your choices aren’t restricted to "bush," "compact" or "determinate" vegetables, either. Although these varieties have been bred specifically to grow well in small spaces, full-size vegetables will also thrive in pots as long as they are treated well.

What constitutes a pot is really limited only by your imagination, but two things that all containers must have is good drainage and planting medium that holds moisture well.

These are non-negotiable. If soil becomes waterlogged and cannot drain freely, plants’ roots suffocate. However, giving plants too little water is not the better option: dehydrated, heat-stressed plants will expend their limited energy merely trying to stay alive, which will drastically reduce your potential harvest.

The key is to find balance, and the best test of that is your finger: push it about two inches into the soil. If your fingertip feels damp, your plant is wet enough. If the soil feels dry at this level, water your plant until water drips from the bottom of the pot.

Although many traditional pots come pre-drilled with at least one large hole, any container you choose can be given sufficient drainage with the right drill bit. After adding one or more ¾-inch holes to the bottom of your container, you can use a fine mesh, such as window screen cut to size, to line the pot. This will let excess water out while keeping precious container soil in.

Toil over soil » Having enough soil is critical to your success as a container gardener, as is choosing the right type. The term "potting soil" is a bit misleading, as most potting-soil mixes are soil-free. Strange as this sounds, soilless mixes are ideal for containers.

Katie Wagner, extension assistant professor of horticulture at USU, says containers should be filled "with a top-quality growing mix containing any of the following: sphagnum peat moss, perlite, vermiculite, coarse/sharp builders’ sand and fine bark." The ingredients in soilless potting mixes help the mixture to stay fluffy and retain moisture, which gives your plants’ roots plenty of breathing room. Soilless mixes are also sterile, which means they’ll lack any little nasties (soil-borne diseases, pest insects, etc.) lurking in your traditional garden soil, and they allow complete control over the nutrition you give to your plants. Because many mixes contain no added fertilizer, you can easily group plants that require the same types of nutrients in the same pot and feed them all at once.

Wagner suggests that container gardeners "add slow-release fertilizer at the time of planting, which will last approximately 2 months, or use a soluble fertilizer and apply it according to the label." Giving your plants the right kinds of fertilizer in the right quantities will directly impact the quality of the edibles they yield.

Gerber says that the most important thing to remember about container gardening is that this "small bit of garden" depends entirely on you. A pot-bound plant has no other consistent sources of water, nor can it seek out nutrition from surrounding soil like its in-ground kin. As its caregiver, you are the sole source of everything it needs to thrive.

To learn more: Contain Yourself!

Growing Relationships - Part #2

Gardens create places of natural beauty and offer opportunities for strengthening friendships and teaching our children the law of the harvest. Growing a garden can help us become more self-reliant. But in the following account, members describe blessings they have received from gardening that go beyond food—blessings that have enriched their relationships with family, Church members, and friends.

Small Harvest, Great Friends
Elisa Freeman, Wyoming, USA

On one of my many trips to Deseret Industries while I was attending Brigham Young University, I found some large gardening pots for sale. I bought them on a whim and made plans to use them to plant a garden in my Provo, Utah, apartment complex. I knew nothing about gardens, except that a familiar Primary hymn—“The Prophet Said to Plant a Garden”—taught me to follow the prophet by planting one.

I worked in my garden in the afternoons when I knew people would be getting home from class or work. Before then, my apartment complex had not been very friendly, and I had almost moved out. My roommates and I decided to use the garden as a way not only to connect with the ward but also to connect people in our ward with one another. We made a conscious effort to speak with everyone who walked by as we gardened. By the end of the summer, I didn’t have much of a harvest—only a few tomatoes, carrots, and some basil. But what I really ended up with was a better sense of belonging and the knowledge that I had helped build ward unity. I formed some of my dearest friendships while working in that garden.

When I look back at that summer, I am so grateful I followed the directions of that Primary song. I learned that the Lord blesses us in unexpected ways when we follow the counsel of His prophets.

Growing Relationships

Sprouting Seeds in Recycled Items

As warm spring weather finally makes its way to Salt Lake, residents are flocking to their nearest garden centers, eagerly buying all kinds of vegetables, fruits and flowers to plant in their gardens. But is the timing right? Be mindful of what you are planting in your gardens this early; the last frost date for Salt Lake (according to the Farmers’ Almanac) is around May 1st, meaning there is still a 50% chance of frost before then which can damage your plants.

However, if you don’t think you can wait that long, and are itching to do something for your garden now, you can always start seeds indoors. Starting the warm season crops by seed right now will give you perfect seedlings to transplant to your garden when the time is right. Some seeds that do well in our high altitude climate include: tomato, cucumber, beans, squash and zucchini (to name just a few).

To get started all you need are your seeds, potting soil and a container to plant them in. Paper cups, egg cartons, plastic fruit holders and plastic jars all work great. You can upcycle just about anything in your house as long as you can keep it close to a sunny window and allow for drainage. This saves money and the environment by reusing stuff you already have.

To get started:

• Find your container and make sure the bottom has holes for sufficient drainage. Place potting soil inside and water until it is damp.
• Section off the soil into different planting areas for different types of seeds in necessary (a cut up mac n’ cheese or other cardboard box will do the trick).
• Sow your seeds into the soil as directed on the package.
• Place by a sunny window or keep outside during the day (as long as the temperature doesn’t dip too low) and water just enough to keep the soil damp. Avoid “puddling” which can drown the seeds.

You’d be surprised how easy and satisfying planting your own seeds can be. It’s also a great project to get the kids involved in. They may actually be willing to eat a vegetable if they helped plant and raise it from seed. (It’s always worth a try at least!)

For a tutorial on making a small greenhouse for your seeds, click here.

To learn more: Sprouting Seeds Using Recycled Items

5-Minute Craft: How to Sprout Seeds from Eggshells

This spring, recycle your cracked eggshells by using them as adorable—and earth-friendly—starter pots. Just poke a few drainage holes in the bottom of a clean, empty shell with a needle, fill with soil, then sow and tend seeds according to packet instructions. Once your seedlings are ready to be transplanted outside, you can even work the calcium-rich shards right into the dirt. Easy, right?

To learn more: Country Living