Daily Improvisations

  • Inside the Homestead
    • Sewing
    • crochet and knit
    • Playing House
    • In the Workshop
    • Cooking and Food
    • Helpless Female
  • Out in the Garden
    • In My Greenhouse
    • Gardening in Southwest Idaho
    • Straw Bale Garden Project
  • Out with Animals
    • Chickens
    • Goats
    • Horses
  • Around the Globe
    • Adventures with Wild Greg
    • Chocolate Shops Around the World
    • Life in Taipei
    • About Town
      • My Blogs
  • The DI Store
    • DI Gardener’s Shop
    • How to Build a Backyard Brick Oven From Scratch (Book)
    • Custom designs
  • DI Memberships
    • Log In
    • Sign up to be a DI Sewing Room Insider
    • Dream House Members Area
      • Dream House Eyewitness Login
      • Your Account
      • Dream House Project
    • Become a Dream House Eyewitness!

Quick Guide to Spring Gardening in Southwest Idaho

March 15, 2013 by Laura Blodgett Leave a Comment

March your Idaho garden into April:

Idaho really has two garden seasons:  cool-early and warm-to-scorching-later.  Most of the cool weather crops will not be worth planting once we hit June.
Evaluating Your Interplanting in Your Garden During Fall Clean Up

Plant cool weather crops like peas, lettuce, broccoli, and spinach directly in the garden as soon as weather permits, typically mid March.  This is one reason why fall clean-up can be a good idea. Also, take advantage of volunteer seedlings.  Learn to identify them!
Let Us Have Lettuce in August in Southwest Idaho

Start some seeds, such as peppers, small herbs, and flowers that take a long time to reach good size (petunias, snap dragons, portulaca) as early as mid February.
10 Criteria for Deciding Which Garden Seeds to Start Early in Your Greenhouse

Plant other seeds indoors, i.e. tomatoes and basil, about the beginning of April, or 6-8 weeks before last frost (last frost is somewhere around mid May)  This is also a good time to start some flower seeds, like nasturtium and thunbergia vines, See blog for ideas about grow lights.
Easy Grow Light Stand for Seedlings

Don’t forget to harden off anything that has begun life in a pot.

Directly plant things like carrots, onions, beets, and potatoes when chances of a hard frost are past, typically sometime in April or May.

Wait to plant seeds for warm weather crops like beans, zucchini, corn, squash, melons, and cucumbers until right around the last frost date, or when snow is no longer on Bogus Basin.  There is not usually a benefit from starting them ahead in pots.

Idaho is an arid climate.  If you want to try to grow those things like blueberries and azaleas that prefer the forest, try it in a northeast, semi-protected section of the landscape.  However, be aware that in the heat of July and August they will probably suffer even in the afternoon shade.  It is hard to reach a balance between enough sun and maintaining moisture.  Not to mention they often need acidic soil and we tend to have alkaline soil.
How to Keep Track of Watering Your Garden

Consider adding chickens to your garden plan.  They love to compost; and homegrown eggs are delicious!
Pre Spring Evaluation of Chicken Coops, Nesting Boxes, and Predator Protection Measures

 

my greenhouse work bench ready to go
my greenhouse work bench ready to go

 

Filed Under: Gardening in Southwest Idaho, Out in the Garden Tagged With: southwest Idaho gardening

If you want to read a heartwarming story about how a mother deals with a daughter's death, read this book.

If you have ever wanted to cook pizza in a brick oven in your own backyard, this book is for you!

Basic Facts Guides to Gardening in Southwest Idaho

a list of blog articles covering the basics to help you with your garden in southwest Idaho

My Other Blogs

  • Fun Fitness After 50
  • Fun Learning Chinese
  • LauraBlodgett.com
  • The Happy Homeschool

Blogroll

  • Anemone Flynn
  • Fine Gardening
  • Gourmet In The Field
  • Sew 4 Home

About me

 

 

Daily Improvisations is a project by Laura Blodgett

If you want to know more about what I’m up to and where to read about it, here is a summary!

Making sure you know that:

Some of the links on this site are affiliate links, including affiliate links to amazon.com. See disclosures here.

Contact Me

Contact Me
First

All pictures and content including the name and logo “Daily Improvisations” are Copyright (c) 2019 by Laura Blodgett, unless otherwise noted. Please contact the author with any questions or comments.

Tags

animals Backyard Oven backyard weeds book reviews Chef Betharoni chickens Cori Lou Costa Rica crochet and knit decorating even I can do dehydrating fabric stores around the world flowers flowers from seed Gardens Around the Globe helpless female homestead injuries insects interview Maui music organizing poems PVC Pipe Projects questioning the establishment recipes restaurant reviews sew sewing southwest Idaho gardening sprinklers stock market diaries Taipei Taiwan technology know-how The Best Little Chocolate Shops tools and equipment underground house unimpeded parenting Wild Greg Adventure

Copyright © 2023 · Beautiful Pro Theme on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in