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This page is dedicated to all our SUMMER inspired posts. An easier way to find all blog entries that answer your pesky pest questions, give variety and plant recommendations and keep you entertained during those hot summer months.

April 24, 2016

7 Tips for Conserving Water in your Vegetable Garden

I have already seen several sprinkler systems running full blast which can only mean one thing, our season for irrigation is just around the corner. Rising temperatures and growing plants causes some gardeners to begin to lose sleep over water – is it too much, is it too little or is it just right! A…

July 31, 2016

The Tomato Disease Diaries – The not-good, the bad and the ugly!

Our diagnostic help desk has been deluged with disease – tomato diseases specifically. With all the questions rolling in, and after listening to an excellent presentation by Marion Murray, I reached out to her to provide some information on a tomato disease blog post. Many thanks Marion for sharing your disease expertise with us! Tomato…

July 17, 2016

Tips, tricks and traps

We’ve had quite a few inquiries the last few weeks about controlling Earwigs and sure enough this very topic showed up in the latest Vegetable IPM advisory from the Utah Pests team! Along with that advice came some great information on other recently spotted garden pests AND beneficial insects. Read below for more information and keep…

August 16, 2015

A Few Tips for a Tastier Tomato

Almost any gardener would agree that harvesting your first garden ripened tomato is always a big highlight of the growing season! Lucky for us, tomatoes are relatively easy to grow in Utah, but there are a few tricks that can make a big difference in their productivity. Here are ten tips for growing great tasting…

August 28, 2016

Veggies Get Sunburns Too!

Hot sunny days at the beach guarantee sunburned bodies of people who forget to apply sunscreen, but did you know that fruits and vegetables get sunburns too? Of late I’ve noticed lots of fruits and veggies with ugly damage caused by too much direct sun exposure – called sunscald injury. Although sunscald injury is purely…

July 7, 2019

Red, White and Blooms!

Those of you that follow our garden progress at Wheeler Historic Farm are bound to have noticed that the USU Extension Demonstration Teaching Garden is looking ‘bloomtastic’ these days! Flower gardens not only attract pollinators and beneficial insects, but also provide humankind eye-candy with firecrackers of color and texture. Here is a run-down of flowers…

August 7, 2016

Blossom End Rot

We were very excited to see that last week’s post on tomato diseases made our top 10 viewed blog posts for the Organic Forecast blog! Since it seems everyone is into diseases and disorders, and Debbie asked us an excellent question about ‘rot’ she found on her tomatoes, we thought we would dedicate this week’s…

pepper with sunscald next to pepper without it

September 13, 2015

Timely Tips – Peppers Get Sunburns Too!

We had a great harvest of the Meals Plus Harvest Garden over the Labor Day weekend and donated the bounty to the Friendly Neighborhood Senior Center. It was so much fun talking to the residents who literally followed us in the door to be the first to select from our donated garden goodies. Here is…

August 14, 2016

You are not alone…in the garden

Unless you are growing a garden in a top secret new technology bubble, it is safe to say you are not alone. There are a plethora of creepy, crawling, adorable insects and organisms that have made your garden home and are sticking around to either help you be successful (beneficial) or not so successful (pests). One of the many things we…

June 20, 2020

Top 10 Tips for Gardening with Kids

Kids are great fun in the garden and love learning about growing and harvesting their favorite vegetables, fruits and herbs. According to my colleague Carrie Durward, USU Extension Nutrition Specialist, gardening is a healthy activity for the whole family because: Both kids and parents eat more vegetables in homes with gardens, Gardens increase the availability…

June 26, 2016

If you build it, they will come….

Bee a Contributor – Watch this amazing video on native bees and do your part to protect them by planting pollinator plants listed in this factsheet! Much emphasis is often placed on European honeybees due to, well their overall amazingness, but also their important contribution to our food supply (as much as one in four bites…

May 29, 2016

It’s time to monitor for pests – It’s time to sign-up for Utah Pests advisories!

Last week we were noticing some damping-off on our melons planted in the Meals Plus Harvest Garden which reminded me to check for current pest advisories on the Utah Pests website. The first small fruit and vegetable IPM pest advisory was released on April 22, 2016 and, just as they always have perfect timing, damping-off…

June 13, 2021

Utah’s Most Hated Weed!

It seems like all gardeners, novice or expert, know two weeds by name – dandelions and morning glory! The morning glory plant is a very unwelcome visitor to any vegetable garden since it is so difficult to control. Have you ever wondered what makes this pretty and delicate looking plant so tough? Here are some…

August 4, 2015

Awesome Actualities about Artichokes

Artichokes are giant thistle plants that produce an edible flower bud if harvested before maturity. As the flower ‘matures’, ‘hearts’ will turn to ‘chokes’ – cough! Artichokes should be considered a garden annual (lives for one growing season) in the Northern Utah climate – although gardeners might find ‘microclimates’ where protected plants reemerge in spring.…

August 2, 2015

There is Nothing Humdrum about Hummingbirds!

I have been seeing lots of hummingbirds in the Meals Plus Harvest Garden lately so it seemed like an opportune time to blog about them. Hummingbirds are such a treat to watch in the garden as they ‘chirp’ and zip about either drinking nectar or chasing another unwelcome hummer out of their territory. Here are some tips…

July 5, 2015

The Dog Days of Summer – What Hot Dry Weather Means for Healthy Garden Plants

The recent hot and dry summer weather has had a ‘dormant-full’ effect on stressed cool-season turf grass areas, but the opposite is true for well-hydrated warm-season garden plants – with special emphasis on the words ‘stressed’ and ‘well-hydrated’. Sunshine and heat are ideal for healthy warm-season garden gems like tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, squash and…

June 7, 2015

Allow Me to Introduce You to the Meals Plus Harvest Garden!

In the spring of 2014, USU Extension partnered with Salt Lake County Aging and Adult Services to create the Meals Plus program in Salt Lake County. Our goal is to deliver fresh produce weekly to homebound Meals on Wheels clients. The program was created to help homebound seniors access fresh produce of which they…

June 14, 2015

Celebrate National Pollinator Week, June 15th – 21st, 2015

In honor of National Pollinator Week, I felt it was important to highlight some great plants that attract different types of pollinators to your yard and garden. For those that know me well, I am a bee-lover at heart, but I also get a little choked-up when I see other types pollinators visit my garden…

May 17, 2015

Top 10 Ways to Make and Use Compost

Mike Whitesides, our Extension marketing guru, has asked me to compile some ‘Top 10’ lists for your reading pleasure. Here is the second installment and a timely tip, how to make and use compost: Location-location-location! Place your compost bin near the area you plan to spread your compost and near a convenient water source. Oftentimes,…

May 10, 2015

Top 10 Ways to Attract Bees & Butterflies to Your Yard

Plant plants that bloom throughout the growing season and hence provide a continuous supply of pollen and nectar. When selecting plants at the nursery, make sure to not only purchase plants that bloom in the spring, but also plants that bloom in the summer, and plants that bloom in the fall so pollinators have a…

August 19, 2014

Attracting Lacewings to the Garden

We are loving the Natural Enemy Spotlight that has been showing up in our USU seasonal “Vegetable IPM Advisory” as of late! The most recent introduction is the Lacewing. “Lacewings are generalist predators and are commonly found in agricultural, landscape, and garden habitats. Most species of lacewing adults are predaceous, while others feed strictly on…

August 23, 2013

Tip of the Week: Cucumber Beetles

“The western striped and western spotted cucumber beetles both occur in Utah, and feed on leaves, flowers, and fruit rinds. Both species begin activity in the spring, and are around for most of the summer. They are in their second generation now, actively feeding on the skins of watermelon, cantaloupe, zucchini, winter squash, pumpkin, and…

July 21, 2014

Tip of the Week: Cabbage Aphids

APHIDS. They suck. We all know they exist, but did you know there were so many different types? The one recently being reported on in the latest Utah Pest-Vegetable Advisory is the the CABBAGE APHID. “Cabbage aphid are easy to identify as they have a white waxy coating. These aphids commonly occur in dense colonies,…

August 9, 2013

Tip of the Week: Beetleaf Hopper and Curly Top Virus

“Curly top can be a devastating disease, because it survives in a wide range of weed hosts, is easily spread, and difficult to manage. The leafhopper picks up the virus while feeding on infected weeds in spring. When weeds dry down, the leafhopper migrates to irrigated gardens and rangeland. A leafhopper can spread the virus…

July 17, 2014

Tip of the Week: Flea Beetles

There are two common species of flea beetles (the tobacco flea beetle and the western flea beetle) that are now actively feeding now on a variety of crops including: cabbage, radishes, eggplant, melons, peppers, potatoes, spinach, rutabagas, parsnips, collards, kale, broccoli, brussels sprouts, beets tomatoes and turnips. “Adult beetles, which produce most plant injuries, chew…

June 28, 2014

Things to Consider When Using Organic Fertilizers

Most fertilizers are labeled with a sequence of numbers detailing the percentage of nitrogen (N), phosphate (P2O5) and potash (K2O) they contain. For example, a complete inorganic fertilizer containing all three may be labeled 16-16-8, meaning it contains 16% nitrogen, 16% phosphate and 8% potash. Not all fertilizers are considered equal, especially when comparing inorganic and organic options.…

June 16, 2014

Pollinator Week

Limiting use of insecticides is a really important part of protecting our pollinators! Happy #PollinatorWeek everyone.

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