Rick Heflebower is the Utah State University Extension agent over horticulture classes and has served as a member of the St. George Shade Tree and Beautification Board and the Washington County Weed Board, providing educational resources related to gardening and water in the local area. The USU Extension is celebrating its 100th year as a cooperative educational system sharing the university’s resources with communities throughout the state, and is responsible for the 4-H youth agricultural program.
SGM:Southern Utah’s desert climate can make growing some types of plants tricky. What tips can you offer for people who like to garden?
Heflebower: One thing I run into with people who move here from somewhere else is they’re not used to the desert. When you live in Southern Utah, you live in a place of extremes. It can get very hot in the summer and it still gets cold in the winter. That will affect what you plant. If you need humidity for a plant, it’s not going to do well.
Here are five tips for making a successful garden:
• Tip No. 1. You’re going to have to amend the soil, unless you’re growing plants that love the desert. Amending the soil means you’re using plants that require that organic matter be added. Some people have access to leaves here to compost them. Beyond that, there’s not a great source of organic matter here to compost, unless you get it from a nursery or a similar type of place. Sometimes people use wood chips. People can make their own mulch from yard debris or table scraps. In outlying areas, people may have access to neighbors with animal manure. If an area’s been farmed a while and the farmer’s put that fertilizer back into the soil, you’re good.
• Tip No. 2. People need to understand the needs of the specific plants they want. Maples and crab apple trees generally don’t like our soil and climate. A lot of people bring in cactus plants and most do well. But we also get cold here. For tall ones, like saguaros, it’s generally too cold. We’re on the margin here for palm trees, as a lot of people saw when (last December’s snowstorm) came through. I’m afraid after this winter, there’s going to be quite a bit of damage to the palms. When March and April get here and they send out new shoots, we’ll know.
• Tip No. 3. You need to have a good idea of when to plant fruit trees and vegetables. Some people think you shouldn’t plant until June. For us, spring starts in March, or the end of February. For bare-root plants, especially, if it’s hot already, they’re going to suffer. A lot of our vegetables can be planted before the last frost date.
• Tip No. 4.Put some planning into how you’re going to landscape before you plant your garden. The sun and wind exposure is going to be quite a bit different from north to south and from east to west. Yards tend to be cooler on the north side. Some plants get burned on the west side — the bark can burn on that side. That can be very debilitating for young trees. Myrtles seem to handle it. Ash trees and mulberries struggle the first year or two.
• Tip No. 5. It’s critical to understand that everything will need to be watered according to its needs. Lawns need to be watered frequently to keep up with evaporative loss. But trees, if you water them every couple of days, are not going to be real happy. They need to be watered deeply and less frequently. Once a week, maybe twice a week, but for longer durations. And some people set up their sprinklers so they hit right on the bark of the tree. That can be damaging over long periods of time, and snowbirds who set up their water to run while they’re gone, during summer heat or monsoonal rains, may return to find everything dead. I also see calcium deposits on plants from hard water use. Some things can take it, but others have a hard time.