It’s that magical time of year, when seed catalogs start rolling in!  Seed companies know they have a captive audience since gardeners

  1. Don’t have anything to watch grow in their gardens;
  2. Miss eating garden ripe produce;
  3. Have extra time on their hands they usually spend tending the garden.

This “triangle effect” has resulted in many gardeners going a little crazy while shopping seed catalogs – “sorry dear, I forgot to start dinner because I was busy selecting which cauliflower to grow this year” sound familiar?

Seed Catalog in Pile of Mail

It is almost time to start seeds inside of slow growing transplants like broccoli, onions and peppers.  Also keep in mind, if you live outside of the Salt Lake area, your average last frost date may be quite different from those along the I-15 corridor.  For example, St. George residents really need to get their seed starting on now (see dixiegardener.org) while Park City residents, well, sit back, relax and enjoy watching the snow piles melt for several more weeks.seeds in trays

One of my major roles with Extension is to make my constituents are aware of useful online resources.  If you want to know the average last frost date for your area, check out the Utah Climate Center’s website climate.usu.edu. While you are there, also take 15 minutes to watch a TEDxUSU climate talk by Utah State University Climate scientists Rob Gilles and Rob Davies.

Also, take a few minutes to pry your eyes from those beautiful glossy seed catalogs to read this phys.org article about the Pineapple Express (aka wet winter weather impacting Utah)!

NASA sees Pineapple Express deliver heavy rains, flooding to California