Planning Spring Vegetable Gardens, Soil Temperature, Nasturtiums & Fencing

02/05/21 • 48 min

SHOW NOTES

Winter is the ideal time to reflect on last year’s garden and plan for the year ahead, but when seed catalogs start arriving it can be overwhelming. In this episode of Granite State Gardening, New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station Becky Sideman, Emma Erler and Nate Bernitz share and discuss proven tips and solutions for selecting the right varieties and developing your garden plan. Part 1 of this conversation was packed with experience and insights to help make 2021 your most successful and rewarding gardening season yet, and our next episode will feature the second half of the discussion.

Featured question: What is the best way to get an accurate soil temperature reading and what's the ideal temperature for planting a variety of vegetables?

Featured plant segment: nasturiums, Tropaeolum

Closing gardening tip: Garden fencing considerations

Connect with us at @askunhextension on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to the monthly Granite State Gardening newsletter.

Email us questions, suggestions and feedback at [email protected]

Background Reading:

Soil Temperature for Seed Germination (Penn State): https://extension.psu.edu/seed-and-seedling-biology

Growing Big Onions: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/how-do-i-get-my-onions-grow-bigger

When to Plant Vegetables: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/growing-vegetables-when-plant-your-vegetable-garden-fact-sheet

Preparing a Vegetable Garden Site: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/preparing-vegetable-garden-site

Preventing Garden Diseases: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/10-easy-steps-prevent-common-garden-diseases-fact-sheet

Managing garden pests with IPM: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/garden-IPM

Using leftover seeds: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/are-my-leftover-seeds-last-year-still-good-or-do-i-need-buy-new-ones

Saving seeds: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/how-do-i-save-seeds-next-year%E2%80%99s-garden

Starting plants from seed: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/starting-plants-seed-fact-sheet

Transcript

As transcribed by https://otter.ai

Nate B 00:00

Greetings Granite State gardeners. I'm Nate Bernitz co-host with Emma Erler of the Granite State Gardening podcast a production of UNH extension. This episode features an incredible conversation with the University of New Hampshire's Dr. Becky Seidman. And as part one of two because we decided to split our interview into two episodes. Part Two will be released in a couple weeks, and this episode part one we focus on understanding different kinds of seeds and vegetable garden planning. In part two, we'll take a deep dive into understanding and utilizing the wealth of information on seed packets, and within seed catalogs, physical and online, and how to use that information to take your garden planning to the next level. Dr. Becky Sidman is our first guest on the Granite State Gardening podcast, a colleague of ours at UNH Extension. In addition to Becky's work as a sustainable horticulture state specialist at UNH extension. She's a professor and coordinator of undergraduate programs in sustainable agriculture and food systems within the Department of Agriculture, Nutrition and Food Systems at the University of New Hampshire, and a researcher with the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station. Becky's research emphasizes vegetable and berry crop production, including season extension practices for Northern New England. Let's get into part one of our conversation with Becky Sideman.

Becky, Emma, I am so glad to be sitting here talking with you today abo...

SHOW NOTES

Featured question: What is the best way to get an accurate soil temperature reading and what's the ideal temperature for planting a variety of vegetables?

Featured plant segment: nasturiums, Tropaeolum

Closing gardening tip: Garden fencing considerations

Connect with us at @askunhextension on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to the monthly Granite State Gardening newsletter.

Email us questions, suggestions and feedback at [email protected]

Background Reading:

Soil Temperature for Seed Germination (Penn State): https://extension.psu.edu/seed-and-seedling-biology

Growing Big Onions: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/how-do-i-get-my-onions-grow-bigger

When to Plant Vegetables: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/growing-vegetables-when-plant-your-vegetable-garden-fact-sheet

Preparing a Vegetable Garden Site: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/preparing-vegetable-garden-site

Preventing Garden Diseases: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/10-easy-steps-prevent-common-garden-diseases-fact-sheet

Managing garden pests with IPM: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/garden-IPM

Using leftover seeds: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/are-my-leftover-seeds-last-year-still-good-or-do-i-need-buy-new-ones

Saving seeds: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/how-do-i-save-seeds-next-year%E2%80%99s-garden

Starting plants from seed: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/starting-plants-seed-fact-sheet

Transcript

As transcribed by https://otter.ai

Nate B 00:00

Becky, Emma, I am so glad to be sitting here talking with you today abo...

Previous Episode

Growing Fruits Inside, Neem Oil, Passionflower and Broken Limbs

The idea of growing harvestable fruit inside your home is tantalizing, but is it realistic? In this episode of Granite State Gardening, UNH Extension’s Emma Erler and Nate Bernitz share proven tips and solutions for growing fruits indoors — from the challenge of yielding fruit from plants indoors year-round to growing tropical fruits indoors and outdoors.

Featured question: using neem oil

Featured plant segment: blue passionflower

Closing gardening tip: what to do about broken limbs on trees and shrubs overwinter

Next Episode

Planning Spring Vegetable Gardens (part 2), Container Gardening, Malabar Spinach & Staking Tomatoes

Show Notes

In this bonus episode of Granite State Gardening, New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station researcher Becky Sideman, Emma Erler and Nate Bernitz continue their conversation from the last episode, getting into working with seed catalogs to understand the information and how it’s organized as well as how to make selections that will thrive in your garden. We get into the weeds of concepts including organic, seed treatments, GMOs, and disease resistance, as well as segments on selecting varieties for container gardening, staking tomatoes, and growing Malabar spinach (Basella alba). Part 1 of this conversation, titled Planning Spring Vegetable Gardens, Soil Temperature, Nasturtiums & Fencing, was packed with experience and insights for garden planning, and we recommend listening to it before jumping into this episode.

Featured question: What are the best varieties for growing veggies in containers?

Featured plant segment: Malabar spinach (Basella alba)

Closing gardening tip: tomato staking

Connect with us at @askunhextension on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter and subscribe to the monthly Granite State Gardening newsletter.

Email us questions, suggestions and feedback at [email protected]

Background reading:

Growing Vegetables in Containers: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/growing-vegetables-containers-fact-sheet

Applied UNH Extension Research: https://extension.unh.edu/tags/applied-vegetable-fruit-research-new-hampshire

Pruning Tomato Plants: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/pruning-tomato-plants-fact-sheet

Preventing Garden Diseases: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/10-easy-steps-prevent-common-garden-diseases-fact-sheet

Managing Garden Pests with IPM: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/garden-IPM

Exciting Veggie Varieties Q&A: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/exciting-veggie-varieties-qa

UNH Sideman Lab on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/unh_sidemanlab/

Transcription by Otter.ai

Nate Bernitz 00:01

Welcome to the Granite State Gardening podcast from UNH Cooperative Extension. On today's show, we continue our conversation with Becky Seidman: UNH Extension specialist, professor of sustainable agriculture and food systems, and researcher at the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station. If you haven't listened to Part one yet, which was called "planting spring vegetable garden soil temperature nasturtiums and fencing", you'll want to check that out before listening to this episode. We'll talk about using the wealth of information provided on seed packets and in seed catalogs, not only to understand it, but how to use it to choose the right varieties and succeed with the varieties you choose. Greetings Granite State gardeners, I'm Nate Bernitz, joined as always by horticulturist and UNH extension field specialist, Emma Erler. And again by Becky Seidman. We pick up our conversation after talking about garden planning systems and strategies. Now, we'll get into talking about tips and solutions for working with seed catalogs, understanding the information provided for us and how it's organized. So rather than get overwhelmed, we can get informed and find varieties that help us bring our garden plans to life. Emma, let's jump back in with what you view as some of the most important sections to focus on when you're looking at a variety of listing and a seed catalog.

Emma E 01:35

I'd say one thing I'm looking at, which is always going to be on there is the days to maturity. So if this if I'm ordering from companies that are out of the Northeast, you should I can probably assume that what I'm going to grow as long as I am planting on time, I'm going to be able to get a harvest. But you know, depending on when you're going to be able to get things in the ground, let's say it mig...