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SALT LAKE CITY -- People across the state are looking to grow their own vegetables to save money at the grocery store. But if you're thinking of buying seeds for your veggie garden, you'd better do it soon.
Before you plant your garden this year, you need to know one thing: Demand for seeds in Utah is sky high this year.
Tina Cerling with Western Garden Centers said, "I haven't totally run out of anything that people really, really want, but I'm sure we will. This is just the beginning [of spring] and we've sold tons of seeds."
Already garden retailers say they're noticing a shortage of seeds because of demand. But before you put anything in the ground, you've got to prepare your soil. If you plan to clear part of your lawn to make space for a garden, Cerling says Round-Up works well.
"Round-Up is brought into the system of whatever plant \[that\] takes it in and it doesn't affect the soil at all. So, once the plant is dead there is no residual problem there," she explained.She says she can't stress enough the importance of adding organic materials to your soil; bat guano, worm castings, all that yummy stuff, and vegetables need more than flowers.
"What you want for either a flower garden or vegetables, you want them to bloom. But the flowers, once they've bloomed, you don't really care if they make good fruit or not. For vegetables, you need a lot of nutrients," she said.
But to feed a family of, let's say five, who plan to eat their veggies right off the plant, how big of a plot do you need to make?
IFA Salt Lake Store Manager Dan Dudley said, "You can probably have an eight by eight [foot], 50 to 70 square feet, you can do enough for having a salad type garden."
But plants like potatoes and corn take up a lot more space than other veggies. Dudley says you should put about six inches between each seed, and don't plant them all at once, or all of your veggies will come in at the same time and they won't sustain a family for too long.
"Last year we did a salad garden at our home with my boys, doing their scouting merit badges, and we didn't buy any produce to make salads from May until October," Dudley said.
He says tomatoes and corn could be pretty difficult to grow, but radishes, herbs, spinach, lettuce, carrots, peas, beans, potatoes and peppers are pretty easy to maintain.
E-mail: pnelson@ksl.com
