by Catherine Haug
I continue to research gardening tips/advice for our Montana climate. Here are a few useful articles and sites. [See “References” at the end of the article for urls.]
MSU Extension Documents:
- Planting a Successful Home Vegetable Garden (in Montana) (1) by Cheryl Moore-Gough provides information on frost tolerance, days to maturity germination temps, and much more about planting. (If you watch Montana AG Live on Montana PBS, you’ve probably seen her, as she is their horticulture specialist). You can also view this 4-page pdf document on the ESP website: MontGuide: Planting a Successful Veggie Garden in Montana (1).
- Can I Grow That Here; Vegetable Seed & Transplant Schedules for Garden or Container (2) by Am P. K. Grandpre includes tabular information on: days to maturity, planting dates, sun requirements, weeks to transplant size and frost tolerance for 34 vegetables. Recommends varieties for containers and/or greenhouse if applicable. You can also view this 8-page pdf document on the ESP website: MontGuide: Can I Grow That Here? (2).
[NOTE: for your future reference, MSU Extension links for these files are also available in ), to our “Food: Gardening” links section, in the right hand column of our home page, and also on the Gardening Files page. (3)]
MSU Extension Catalog: Yard & Garden Publications: Fruits & Vegetables (4) is a series of publications available from MSU Extension service; many are free and can be downloaded as pdf files. Others require a fee to purchase or download. Here are some free examples (many more are available from the Publications (4) site):
- Growing Minor Stone Fruit in Montana (5) (chokecherries, bush plums, etc.)
- Harvesting & Saving Seeds (6)
- Growing Tomatoes in Montana (7)
- Hotbeds & Coldframes for Montana Gardens (8)
GardenGuides.com Article: Vegetables That Grow in Montana. This is not as useful as the MontGuide above, but worth checking it out if you are a new gardener.
Ed Hume Seeds: Vegetable Garden Layout has lots of good information on planning and readying your garden in our Pacific Northwest climate. He offers a Seed Planting Chart for a Family of Four to help with planning your garden.
Growing Plants from Seeds is a resource of gardening links by specific crop and lots of other useful information. A similar page on his site: Ed Hume’s Library by Subject can help you find answers to many of your gardening questions.
And there’s a program that can provide you seeds to Plant a Row for the Hungry.
References
- gardenguide.montana.edu/pdf/veg_garden.pdf or essentialstuff.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/GardenGuide_MSUext.pdf
- msuextension.org/publications/YardandGarden/MT199308AG.pdf or essentialstuff.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/04/WhatGrowsHere_MTguide.pdf
- essentialstuff.org/index.php/categories/files/gardening-files
- www.msuextension.org/Publications/ESCatalog/YARDPublicYARDFruits_and_Vegetableslist.asp?cmd=resetall
- msuextension.org/publications/YardandGarden/MT200208AG.pdf
- msuextension.org/publications/YardandGarden/MT199905AG.pdf
- msuextension.org/publications/YardandGarden/MT199905AG.pdf