The Library will be closed on Monday, January 20th in observation of Martin Luther King Day Closings

Plan Your Garden

Each new season is a chance to dream about and plan a beautiful and productive garden! Planning is key to success. Whether you have space for a container garden, choose to create raised beds, or have a sunny yard to fill, you will want to assess your micro-climate, soil, and amount of sun/shade before you choose what to plant.


Soil

In much of our area, soil will need amending to grow great veggies, herbs and flowers. You can start with a soil test to see what yours needs. If you are container gardening, purchase bags of soil meant for this purpose. Soil test kits are available at garden stores, or you can send samples to UVM for testing.

How to Take a Soil Sample

Amending (improving) your soil will give plants the best chance to thrive. You may need to add soil amendments such as sand or coconut coir for drainage, compost or composted manure for nutrients and to improve the texture of soil, or a source of minerals such as greensand or lime particularly for trees and shrubs. 

This is especially important if you are starting a garden on what is currently lawn. In this case you will need to remove the sod and replace it with several inches of topsoil turned in, plus amendments. Or you can kill the grass with a heavy mulch and layers of newspaper, cardboard or weed block cloth. In subsequent years the garden will need consistent weeding and the addition of soil amendments.  

Types of Gardens

There are many styles and methods of gardening. Some have proven to be successful in the Northeast. There are books in the library as well as many online resources to learn about the different methods. Choose the type of garden that is manageable for your space, time, and budget.

Choose What to Grow

If you are a beginning gardener, choosing easy-to-grow plants will help you be successful your first year! Easy plants in northwestern Vermont include cucumbers, beans, peas, zucchini, beets, greens, lettuces, radishes. All of these can be “direct sown”, meaning you don’t have to start them early indoors (although some gardeners do, to get a jump on the season). Some of these same seeds are also easy to collect and save for your next year’s garden because they set seeds annually, and do not need large isolation distances to avoid cross-pollination. Beans, peas, tomatoes and lettuce are some of the easiest seeds to save and a good place to start!

Use the information provided on seed packets, a basic garden book, or online at a seed company’s website to determine how much sun and space each plant needs, and when it’s safe to plant. 

Pay attention to where you plant annuals versus perennials which come back each year. Most garden vegetables are annuals. You will want to check the information on the seed packet or pot when selecting flowers and take note if they are annual or perennial in your growing zone. Most of Chittenden County is Zone 5 a but there are colder microclimates, especially closer to the Green Mountains. Check the USDA Hardiness Zone map. 

Planning, Composting, and Transplanting
 

Grow Your Best Garden Ever!

A woman squats in a garden next to a green watering can and has her hands in the soil working with plants

Care for Your Garden

There are many resources to learn about gardening, including your friends and neighbors who garden, and books at the Library. Plus, experience is the best teacher! So, dig right in! 

To help you narrow down the abundance of information available on the web, we offer you the following link to the Vermont Garden Network’s How-to-Gardening Tips & Resources page. The experts there have chosen their favorite resources just for you. 

How-to-Gardening Tips & Resources from the Vermont Garden Network

Tip for supporting our native pollinators at the end of the season:  Don’t work so hard! Unless obviously diseased, leave your plants in the garden and do your clean-up in the spring to provide important over-wintering homes and protection from the weather to our native pollinators such as bees, caterpillars, ants, and flies. (Trees in your yard are critical habitat for caterpillars too!) Bonus: some plants will self-seed if left alone at the end of the season, for example herbs such as dill and cilantro easily drop seeds that will sprout in the spring! 

Dealing with Pests and Diseases

The Library has an ample gardening section, including books to help you identify and manage pests and diseases. Search our catalog here

HGTV has a helpful guide to identifying and dealing with some of the most common garden pests and diseases:

If you are stumped, you can submit a question to the UVM Master Gardener program here

A monarch butterfly sits on a small pink flower, green plants in the background

Promote Biodiversity and Resilience

You can promote biodiversity and climate resilience by creating more native plant and pollinator habitat in your garden, lawn, or town. Help reverse the decline of bird and insect populations by simply choosing native plants that provide nectar, pollen, seeds, nesting sites, and and a protective habitat in your garden.

The Library has a number of gardening books that provide information about this topic: 

Below are links to some great local resources on native and pollinator-friendly plants: