Planning Spring Vegetable Gardens, Soil Temperature, Nasturtiums & Fencing

SHOW NOTESWinter 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, TropaeolumClosing 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-biologyGrowing Big Onions: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/how-do-i-get-my-onions-grow-biggerWhen 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-sitePreventing Garden Diseases: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/10-easy-steps-prevent-common-garden-diseases-fact-sheetManaging garden pests with IPM: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/garden-IPMUsing leftover seeds: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/are-my-leftover-seeds-last-year-still-good-or-do-i-need-buy-new-onesSaving seeds: https://extension.unh.edu/blog/how-do-i-save-seeds-next-year%E2%80%99s-gardenStarting plants from seed: https://extension.unh.edu/resource/starting-plants-seed-fact-sheet Transcript As transcribed by https://otter.aiNate B  00:00Greetings 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 about one of my favorite topics and certainly a timely topic as we're getting our seed catalogs in the mail, snows on the ground. And we're just yearning to be outside and warm weather back in our gardens. And seed catalogs, of course, have so much promise the the new varieties, the exciting varieties, all the benefits, the solutions to last year's problems. They're all in that seed catalog. But I think it makes sense to start with a little bit of science as we sometimes do an extension. So Becky, was wondering if you can demystify a few terms, the big two categories, when it comes to seeds, open pollinated and hybrid, what are we talking about? They'reBecky S  02:25Sure, I agree, this is my favorite time of year with the same catalog start coming in. And we get to spend our time poring through them.Emma E  02:34Basically, an open pollinated variety is one where you can save the seeds, and they come out looking something like what you started with. And so it's basically an inbred thing that you can keep saving, and selecting, and so forth. A hybrid is a variety, that's the result of crossing to parents that might or might not look anything like each other. And as a result, it's pretty uniform, and usually has pretty predictable characteristics. But if you saved it seed, it wouldn't come out. Like the thing you started with. Am I in your experience when you're looking at a seed catalog or a seed packet for that matter? Are they actually going to say open pollinated? or hybrid? Are they going to have other terminology as well? And how does that all fit together? Yeah, I'm glad you asked that Nate, a lot of times that information is listed right on the seed packet. it'll it'll sometimes say open pollinated, will often say is heirloom, which all heirloom varieties are open pollinated varieties. They've just been around for a while, like they've been around probably since 1950. Or or earlier. So these are things that people have been have been saving the seeds from for four generations. Typically, what you will see to on on seed packets is an indication if a seed is hybrid, so it'll either say hybrid on the label or it will often say f1. I personally sometimes go for the hybrid varieties just because they do have some sometimes stronger characteristics might have a more robust plant might there might be some sort of resistance to a disease, let's say, and I don't try to save seeds myself. So that's perfectly acceptable for my garden.Nate B  04:30And Becky, you're coming into this with several perspectives because n...