Utah Gardening
40 step-by-step guides for Utah’s strange dirt and short summers.
Filter by topic and difficulty. Click any card for the full deep-dive — written for Utah’s alkaline soil, late frosts, and short summers, with five generations of farm experience behind every guide.
40 guides
Utah's alkaline soil — and what to do about it
The pH map of Utah looks like a wall of red. Here's how to work with it instead of against it.
Frost dates by elevation
A 1,000-foot rise changes your last-frost date by about two weeks. Pick the table that matches your address.
Raised beds for high-desert gardens
Sizing, soil mix, edging materials. The 48"-wide-by-12"-deep rule is not arbitrary.
IPM pest calendar — Utah
Which pest, which month, which crop. Drawn from USU's Pest Advisory.
Soil amendments that actually work
Six amendments, what they do, when to use them, and how much to spread.
Drip irrigation for Utah backyards
Mainline, emitters, pressure regulators, and the math for a 4×8 raised bed.
Fruit trees that survive Utah winters
Which apple, pear, apricot, and cherry varieties handle our late frosts and alkaline soil.
Cover crops for cold-winter gardens
Cereal rye, hairy vetch, winter peas. What to sow in September, what to terminate in April.
Composting in a high desert
Greens-to-browns ratio, water management, and why our piles freeze solid in January.
Utah lawn care that doesn't waste water
Mowing height, irrigation timing, fall fertilization, and why most chemicals are unnecessary.
Starting seeds indoors — the setup
Heat mats, lights, trays, soil. The 80% of seed starts that fail come from one of three setup mistakes.
Hardening off transplants without losing them
A week-long ramp from greenhouse to ground. Skip it and watch your tomatoes die in three days.
Row covers and season extension
Floating fabric covers add 4–6°F at night. Worth it on both ends of the Utah season.
Building and using a cold frame
A glazed box over a bed extends the season by 4–6 weeks. Plans, glass angles, vent timing.
Mulching strategies for Utah dirt
Straw, wood chip, compost, plastic. Which mulch suits which crop, and when to lay it down.
Container gardening when ground is bad
Pot size, soil mix, drainage, watering. The minimum container math for tomatoes, peppers, and herbs.
Companion planting that's actually useful
Three-sisters, basil with tomatoes, nasturtium as a trap. Skip the zodiac, keep the science.
A 4-year crop rotation for Utah vegetables
Solanaceae, Brassicaceae, Cucurbitaceae, Fabaceae — the rotation that prevents most soil-borne disease.
When (and how much) to water in Utah
Deep and infrequent beats shallow and daily. Weekly inch counts, soil-moisture probe basics.
Saving your own seed
Open-pollinated, isolation distances, fermenting tomato seed, drying for storage.
Apple varieties for Utah
Honeycrisp, Fuji, Pink Lady, Jonagold. Pollinator pairings, rootstock choice, summer pruning.
Growing grapes in Utah
Concord, Himrod, Lakemont. Trellis systems, dormant pruning, and bird-net timing.
Getting beds ready in March
When to pull the row cover, what to amend, what to direct sow first. The 30-day spring runway.
End-of-season garden cleanup
What to compost, what to burn, what to leave standing for the wildlife. A clean garden is also a sterile garden.
Building a pollinator garden in Utah
Native bees outperform honeybees in our short summer. Plant choices, bloom calendar, and the case for a bee hotel.
Utah native plants for landscaping
Evening primrose, blue flax, sulfur buckwheat. Drought-tolerant, deer-resistant, and bloom when nursery stock fades.
Xeriscape that doesn't look like rocks
Water-wise landscaping with actual plants. Zone planting, mulch depth, drip layout for low-water beds.
Deer fencing that actually works
8-foot fence, double-fence trick, deer-resistant plant lists. The repellent sprays don't work for long.
Vole and gopher control
Hardware cloth in tree wells, traps, the right kind of grass control. Why poison bait creates more voles.
How to plant a tree in Utah dirt
Hole 2× the rootball wide, NOT deep. Backfill with native soil. The single most-skipped step that kills trees.
Fruit tree pruning for backyard orchards
Open center vs central leader, when to summer prune, the dormant prune that controls vigor.
Roses that thrive in Utah
Knockouts, rugosas, and David Austin shrubs that survive our winters. The rose-care calendar.
Spring bulbs — tulips, daffodils, crocus
Plant in October. Daffodils naturalize and come back forever. Tulips are 3-year annuals here.
Hardy perennials for Zone 5–6
Coneflower, Russian sage, hellebore, peony. Plants that come back stronger every year with minimal care.
Worm composting (vermicomposting)
Red wigglers in a 3-bin tower turn kitchen scraps into worm castings — the best fertilizer most people never try.
Edible landscaping for front yards
Blueberries instead of boxwoods. Herbs as ground cover. Fruit trees as ornamentals. Productive plants that look right.
Backyard greenhouse — sizing and orientation
8×10 vs 10×12, polycarbonate vs glass, vent fans, heat mats. The setup that actually pays back.
A garden hummingbirds will visit
Tubular red flowers, salvia, agastache, hyssop. Plant choices and the case for AGAINST nectar feeders.
Iron chlorosis — yellow leaves with green veins
The classic Utah symptom. Foliar iron for emergency, sulfur for the long fix. Why it always comes back.
Pocket gophers vs your lawn
Trapping, exclusion fencing, and why repellent gimmicks waste money. The most common Utah lawn pest after grubs.
Sources:USU Extension Yard & Garden·Utah Climate Center·Five generations of on-farm notes, Sevier County