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HandoutHandout 1: Supply & Shopping List — Vegetable Gardening at Altitude
Handout 1: Supply & Shopping List — Vegetable Gardening at Altitude
Before we plant anything, let's get you outfitted. Honestly, you don't need half of what the garden center will try to sell you. Here's what actually matters, split into what you need to start and what's nice once you're hooked.
The Basics (budget tier)
- Raised bed materials — untreated lumber (2x10 or 2x12 works fine), or a kit if you don't want to measure and cut. I'll die on this hill: raised beds are worth it here because our native soil is heavy, alkaline, and the hard water makes it worse. A bed lets you control what's actually in the dirt.
- Garden soil / compost blend — don't just dig up your yard dirt and call it done. Get a raised-bed soil mix or make your own with compost. Costco and the garden centers along the bench both carry bagged compost in spring, and it's worth the trunk space.
- Hand trowel and a spade — one of each, nothing fancy.
- Watering can or hose with a decent nozzle — you're going to water deep and less often, not a little every day, so you want something that can actually soak a bed, not just mist it.
- Tomato and pepper transplants, not seed packets. First year, buy the starts. Our season's too short to spend four weeks nursing seedlings on a windowsill and finding out you did it wrong. Learn the garden first.
- Seed packets for direct-sow crops — beans, carrots, peas, squash. Ignore the dates printed on the back. Those are written for somewhere warmer than here. Our last frost can sneak into late May.
- Popsicle sticks and a pencil — to mark what you planted and when. I learned this the hard way after sowing carrots too early and losing half the row to cold, wet soil. Now every row gets a sow date on a stick so I stop guessing.
- A basic garden journal — a spiral notebook is fine. Mine's three seasons deep with soil notes and pencil drawings of leaves I can't always identify. Keith once asked if one of my squash sketches was a map. It's fine. It works for me, not because it's tidy.
The "get you through the whole season" tier
- A cheap max/min thermometer, the kind that records the overnight low. This is the single best thing you can buy this year. Everyone worries about our hot dry afternoons, but the real killer here is a clear night that drops to freezing when you weren't paying attention. Put the thermometer in the bed, check it every morning, and you'll understand your own yard instead of some county average.
- Row cover or old sheets — for the nights that thermometer warns you about.
- A soil pH test kit — our water is hard enough that I started seeing white crust on the surface of my beds by August. Took me embarrassingly long to connect that to the water and not some plant disease. Test early so you're not guessing later.
- Mulch (straw or bark) — helps with our dry air pulling moisture out of the bed faster than you'd think.
Nice-to-Have (once you're hooked)
- A cold frame — I built mine out of an old storm window and scrap two-by-fours over a weekend. It's ugly. It works. I have eleven photos of it on my phone from four different angles, which tells you how proud I am of an ugly box.
- Drip irrigation on a timer — not essential year one, but it'll save you in July when you're not home to water.
- A soil thermometer — separate from the air thermometer, this tells you when the ground is actually warm enough for seeds, especially for something finicky like squash.
Shopping Notes
Buy transplants from a local nursery rather than a big box store if you can. They tend to carry varieties bred for a shorter season, which matters more here than people think. Compost and soil amendments are cheaper by the bag at Costco if you're filling more than one bed. Don't buy basil starts from me for advice on keeping them alive. Everything else in my garden does fine and the basil just sulks and dies every single year. I buy my basil at the store now and I've made peace with it.
- D
HandoutHandout 2: Cheat Sheet for Vegetable Gardening at Altitude
Handout 2: Cheat Sheet for Vegetable Gardening at Altitude
Print this, stick it on the fridge or the shed wall, get dirt on it. That's what it's for.
Frost Dates (Plan to These, Not the Seed Packet)
- Last spring frost: don't trust anything before May 15, and honestly, keep a cover ready through Memorial Day. Mine got flattened on Mother's Day my first year and I've never forgotten it.
- First fall frost: can show up as early as late September. Watch your max/min thermometer starting Labor Day.
- Seed packets are usually written for somewhere warmer than here. Ignore the dates printed on them and use the ones above.
The Thermometer Thing
Buy a cheap max/min thermometer, the kind that records the overnight low. Stick it right in the bed. Read it every morning with your coffee.
This one tool taught me more than any book did. It's not about the average for the county, it's about what actually happened in your yard last night.
Watering, Done Right
- Water deep and less often. Dry air out here will trick you into shallow daily watering, and that grows lazy, shallow roots.
- Check moisture by sticking a finger into the soil, not by eyeballing the surface. The surface lies.
- If your water's hard like mine, watch for white crust building up on the soil in raised beds by midsummer. That's mineral buildup, not disease. Don't panic and start treating for something that isn't there.
Raised Beds: Why I Push Them
Our native dirt here is heavy, alkaline, and the hard water makes it worse. A raised bed lets you control what's actually in the soil instead of fighting what you were handed. I will die on this hill.
Your First Year, Keep It Simple
- Buy transplants for tomatoes and peppers. Don't start from seed your first year. Our season's too short to spend four weeks nursing seedlings on a windowsill only to find out you did it wrong. Learn the garden first. Get fancy later.
- Direct-sow carrots, beans, peas once soil has actually warmed. Write the sow date on a popsicle stick and push it in the row. I lost half a carrot planting once because I guessed instead of writing it down. Seeds sitting in cold, wet soil just rot.
The Real Enemy Isn't Heat
Everybody worries about our hot, dry afternoons. That's not what kills your plants. It's a clear, calm night that dumps straight down to freezing while you weren't paying attention. Heat you can manage with water and shade cloth. A surprise 29-degree night takes out six tomato starts before breakfast. Ask me how I know.
Quick Reference Table
Situation What to do Nighttime low forecast under 40°F, plants not hardened off Cover with sheet, row cover, or bring pots in Soil feels dry 2 inches down Water deep, slowly, let it soak in White crust on soil surface Hard water mineral buildup, not disease. Scrape off top layer if it bothers you Unknown bug on your plants Photo it, don't guess. Ask me or call the extension office Seed packet says "plant after last frost" Cross out their date, write in May 15 When You Don't Know
If it's aphids or squash bugs, I can tell you what to do. Past that, I take a photo and admit I'm not sure, same as you should. The extension office is free and they're better at bugs than I am.
- D
WorksheetHandout 3: Your Frost Dates & First-Year Plan
Handout 3: Your Frost Dates & First-Year Plan
This is the worksheet, not the lecture. Fill it out as we go, or take it home and finish it with a cup of coffee. Either way, don't skip it. This is the thing that keeps you from doing what I did with those tomatoes.
- D
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Part 1: Know Your Dates
Write these down. Don't trust the seed packet, it was written for somewhere warmer than here.
My average last frost date (spring): ______________
My average first frost date (fall): ______________
My actual growing season length: ______________ weeks
Honestly, "average" is doing some work in that sentence. Ours can run late in May and early in September some years. Plan for the shorter season, not the optimistic one.
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Part 2: Get a Thermometer, Use It
Max/min thermometer placed in my bed on: ______________ (date)
Lowest reading so far: ______________
Did it surprise me? Y / N If yes, what did I expect instead: ______________
This is the single most useful five dollars you'll spend on this whole hobby. It teaches you your yard, not the county average.
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Part 3: Site Check
Hours of direct sun my planned bed gets: ______________
Native soil or raised bed? ______________
If native soil, what's it like when I squeeze a handful? ☐ Crumbles apart ☐ Holds a hard clump ☐ Something in between
Any white crust on the soil surface from past watering? Y / N (That's the hard water talking, not a disease. I learned that one the slow way.)
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Part 4: What I'm Planting, and How
For each crop, mark whether you're starting from seed or buying a transplant.
Crop Seed or Transplant Planting Window (based on MY frost dates) Tomatoes Peppers Beans Carrots Squash Other: ______ My rule for year one: buy transplants for tomatoes and peppers. Don't start them from seed on a windowsill your first year. Our season's too short to spend four weeks finding out you did it wrong. Learn the garden first.
Popsicle stick check: am I planning to write the sow date on a stick in the ground so I stop guessing later? Y / N
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Part 5: Watering Plan
How often do I think I'll water: ______________
How will I actually check if it needs water? ☐ Stick my finger in the soil ☐ Look at the surface (this lies to you, by the way) ☐ Other: ______________
Deep and less often beats a little bit every day. The dry air will trick you into shallow watering and shallow watering grows lazy roots.
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Part 6: My Honest Weak Spot
What am I already nervous about, or what did I get wrong last time?
______________________________________________ ______________________________________________
Mine's basil. Every single year. I've quit pretending I'll figure it out and I just buy it at the store now. Everybody's got one plant like that. Write yours down so you're not surprised in July.
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One last thing: if something in your bed looks wrong and you can't tell what it is, take a photo. Don't guess. I know aphids and squash bugs and that's about my ceiling too. Past that, the extension office is who to call, not me pretending.
HandoutHandout 4: Troubleshooting Guide
Handout 4: Troubleshooting Guide
Every one of these has happened in my own beds. Some of them happened more than once, because apparently I'm slow to learn. Find your problem below and try the fix before you panic and rip the plant out.
1. Tomato starts went in and now they're black and mushy. That's frost. Probably a clear night that dropped colder than you expected. Here, that can happen well into late May. Fix: don't plant before Memorial Day unless you've got frost cloth ready to throw on at night, and check that max/min thermometer every morning so you actually know your own yard's numbers instead of guessing.
2. Carrot seeds never came up, or only half did. I did this my first year. Direct-sowed too early, the seeds just sat in cold ground and rotted before they could sprout. Soil needs to actually be warm, not just "it's technically spring." Wait another week or two past when you think you should, and write the sow date on a popsicle stick so you're not relying on memory.
3. White crust building up on top of the soil. That's the hard water talking, not a disease. I noticed this on my raised beds by August and spent a while thinking something was wrong with the plants before I connected it to what was coming out of my hose. It's mostly cosmetic. Scratch the crust into the soil surface when you weed and it's not usually a big deal.
4. Plants look fine in the morning, wilted by 2pm. Honestly, this is normal here in July even with good soil moisture. Our air is so dry the leaves lose water faster than roots can pull it back up midday. Check soil moisture with your finger before you assume you need to water more. If it's damp a couple inches down, leave it alone.
5. Leaves look scorched or crispy on the edges. Usually underwatering, not sunburn, especially if it's spreading across the plant. Water deep and less often. A quick daily sprinkle trains roots to stay shallow and lazy, and shallow roots can't handle our afternoons.
6. Little green bugs all over the new growth. Aphids. Super common, not usually fatal. Blast them off with the hose, a few days in a row, and check for ladybugs before you spray anything. If it's something weirder looking, I'll be honest, I don't always know what I'm looking at past aphids and squash bugs. Take a photo and call the extension office rather than guessing.
7. Squash plant was thriving, now it's wilting all at once even though soil's wet. Could be squash bugs or vine borer. Look at the base of the stem for a small hole with something like sawdust around it. If you find that, it's probably too late for that plant, pull it and don't compost it. This is one I still take photos of and ask around about rather than pretend I've got it fully figured out.
8. Everything in the bed is thriving except the basil. Honestly, no advice here. I cannot keep basil alive to save my life. Everything else in my garden does fine and the basil just sulks and dies regardless of what I try. I buy it at the store now and I've made peace with it.
9. Started tomatoes and peppers from seed and they're leggy and weak. This is why I tell first-timers to buy transplants your first year. Our season's too short to spend four weeks troubleshooting a windowsill setup. Buy starts, learn the garden, get fancy with seed-starting your second or third year once you know what you're doing.
10. Plants look stressed even though you're watering and it's not too hot. Check for a cold night you weren't tracking. Everybody worries about our hot dry afternoons, but the real damage here usually comes from a clear night dumping to freezing when nobody was paying attention. That thermometer in the bed will tell you more than any book will.
When in doubt: water deep, check the thermometer, and don't trust the seed packet's dates. They were written for somewhere warmer than here.
- D
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 1
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay so that's the part I want people to hear, because you just said it like it's nothing, "half of them rotted," and I feel like a new gardener would just quit.
DEBBIE: Well, I almost did. That was the carrots. I put the seeds in the ground way too early because I was excited, and the soil was still cold, and they just sat there and rotted instead of sprouting. The ones I planted a couple weeks later were fine. Same packet, same bed.
JESS: This is episode one of Vegetable Gardening at Altitude, by the way, in case anyone just wandered in mid-carrot-story. I'm Jess, I produce the class podcasts here at Utah Community Learning. Debbie Bean is teaching the class, and she is, I'll just say it, kind of relentless about this altitude thing.
DEBBIE: Honestly, somebody has to be. Everybody moves here, buys a seed packet, and follows the dates printed on the back like they're gospel. Those dates are written for somewhere warmer than here. Our last frost can sneak into late May. I've seen it hit late September on the other end too. If you plan around the packet instead of your own yard, you're planning around the wrong yard.
JESS: You have a story about this, right? The Mother's Day tomatoes.
DEBBIE: My first spring. A neighbor told me Mother's Day is when you plant tomatoes here, so I did, six little starts, all set out proud in my new raised bed. Two nights later it dropped to 29 degrees. I went out in the morning with my coffee and just stood there looking at these flattened black plants like they owed me money.
JESS: That's it, that's the exact face I imagine every time you tell this one.
DEBBIE: It's a good face. I don't recommend earning it though. That's the thing about here, everybody worries about the hot dry afternoons, and honestly those aren't the problem. It's a clear night in late May that dumps down to freezing while you're asleep. That's what actually kills your plants.
JESS: So if someone's listening and they're not even taking the class, what's the one thing they do differently this week because of that?
DEBBIE: Get a cheap max/min thermometer, the kind that records the low overnight, and stick it right in your garden bed. Not on your porch, not wherever, in the bed. Read it every morning for a couple weeks before you plant anything tender. It'll teach you more about your actual yard than any almanac will. My side yard runs colder than my front bed by a good three degrees, and I only know that because I started checking instead of guessing.
JESS: I love that it's such a cheap tool for something that expensive to get wrong.
DEBBIE: Six starts wasn't a fortune, but it stung. And it made me mad enough to actually start reading and taking notes, so I guess it paid off eventually. I've got a garden journal three seasons deep now, soil pH, sow dates on popsicle sticks so I stop guessing like I did with those carrots.
JESS: You mentioned Keith thought one of your drawings was a map.
DEBBIE: A squash leaf. I'm not an artist, I know that. But rough is fine, it just has to mean something to me later. That's the whole journal, really, evidence of what actually happened in my dirt, not what a book said should happen.
JESS: Okay, before we wrap, tell people what's coming in session two, because I know it's the one everybody asks about.
DEBBIE: Raised beds. Why I think they're basically non-negotiable here, and how to build one without overthinking it. Our native soil is heavy, it's alkaline, and the water makes it worse. I'll bring photos of the cold frame I built out of an old storm window too, that thing's ugly but it flat out works, and I've got about eleven pictures of it on my phone from every angle because apparently I was proud of it.
JESS: Bring the phone, bring the journal.
DEBBIE: Always do.
JESS: This has been episode one of Vegetable Gardening at Altitude. Debbie Bean, everybody.
DEBBIE: Go check your low temps before you plant anything. Save yourself a bad morning.
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 2
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay but that's the part I don't think people believe. Like, actually white crust.
DEBBIE: Actual white crust. On top of the soil. I thought it was a fungus at first, I was ready to panic about it in the journal and everything.
JESS: And it was just your water.
DEBBIE: It was just my water. Hard well water, and here that's super common, so if you're on well water or even city water with a softener situation, you might see the same thing by August. It's mineral buildup. It's not a disease, it's just what happens when hard water sits and evaporates off the top of a bed all summer.
JESS: So what do you do about it.
DEBBIE: Honestly, not much, you just don't panic. I scratch the crust into the top inch of soil when I'm weeding and move on. If it's really bad you can flush the bed with a deep watering to push the salts down past the root zone. But the first year I didn't know what I was looking at and I lost a little time being worried about the wrong thing.
JESS: Which, side note, is basically the theme of this whole class.
DEBBIE: It kind of is. Half of gardening here is just learning what's normal for our dirt and our water and our air, instead of panicking because a book says something different.
JESS: Okay, speaking of learning what's normal — tell the ridge story. I love the ridge story.
DEBBIE: The Wasatch one?
JESS: Yeah.
DEBBIE: So a few summers ago I hiked up one of the ridges, I won't pretend I remember exactly which trail, June, still some snow in the shady patches. And I'm walking along and there's these scrubby little plants just going for it. Rocky soil, way less water than I give my raised beds, elevation way higher than my yard. And they're not being babied by anybody. Nobody's out there with a soaker hose.
JESS: And that messed with you.
DEBBIE: It kind of rearranged something for me, yeah. I came home and I was way less precious about things. I'd been checking on seedlings like they were sick relatives. After that hike I started thinking, some of this stuff wants to work if you just get out of its way. Give it what it actually needs and then leave it alone.
JESS: Which is not nothing, coming from you, because you are a checker. You check things.
DEBBIE: I am a checker. But there's checking and there's hovering, and I'd been hovering.
JESS: Okay, so for somebody listening who isn't in the class and wants one thing to actually do this week.
DEBBIE: Get a cheap max/min thermometer and stick it in your garden bed. Not your porch, not the front of the house facing the street. In the bed, where your plants actually are.
JESS: And that tells you what.
DEBBIE: It tells you your low for the night, right there in your yard, which is not the same number as the general forecast for the county. My yard sits a little low, gets cold air pooling in it, and I didn't know that till I had the thermometer telling me every morning. That's the number that kills your tomatoes, not the average.
JESS: Not the daytime heat everybody worries about.
DEBBIE: Everybody worries about the hot afternoons, and honestly that's rarely the thing that gets you here. It's a clear night in late May when you weren't paying attention and it dumps down to freezing while you're asleep. The thermometer teaches you your yard. Cheap ones are ten, fifteen bucks. Way cheaper than replacing six tomato starts.
JESS: Which you know from experience.
DEBBIE: I know from extremely specific experience, yes.
JESS: Okay, last thing before we wrap. Next session.
DEBBIE: Next time we're doing beds and soil, actual hands in dirt. We're building a raised bed together, talking about what to put in it, and I'm bringing my cold frame so people can see the ugly thing in person instead of just hearing me describe it.
JESS: You're bringing the cold frame? To the room?
DEBBIE: I'm bringing the cold frame. It's not glamorous but it works, and I want people to see that it doesn't have to be pretty to do its job.
JESS: I respect that so much. Alright, that's it for this one.
DEBBIE: - D
podcast_scriptClass podcast — episode 3
Audio coming soon — show notes below.
JESS: —okay so that's the part I wanted to ask you about, because you said something in prep that I haven't stopped thinking about, which is that your beans made you smug.
DEBBIE: They did. Honestly, they did.
JESS: Tell it for the podcast people.
DEBBIE: So this was, I think my second year. Bush beans, just a regular row of them, nothing special. And they took off. I mean they produced way more than the four of us could eat. I'm talking grocery bags of beans sitting on my counter, and I'm googling "how many beans is too many beans."
JESS: Is that a real search you did.
DEBBIE: It's a real search. And I ended up just bagging them up and taking them over to Brittany and Bailey. And I stood on their porch handing over these bags like I'd done something. Like I'd personally invented the bean.
JESS: You had not invented the bean.
DEBBIE: I had not invented the bean. But it was my first real proof that this thing works, that you put seeds in dirt here and something comes out the other end that's actually good, actually more than you need. After the tomato disaster my first spring, that was a big deal to me. I felt smug and I'm not going to apologize for it.
JESS: I love that. Okay, so today's episode is technically about watering, right, that's the topic.
DEBBIE: That's the topic, and I want to give people one thing they can use whether or not they ever take my class. Water deep and less often. Not a little bit every day.
JESS: Why not every day, that seems like the safe choice.
DEBBIE: It feels safe. But our air here is so dry it fools you. You water a little bit, the surface looks wet, you feel good about yourself, and you walk away. Meanwhile the water hasn't gone anywhere near the roots. It just sat in the top inch and evaporated by afternoon. And the plant's roots stay shallow because that's where the water is, so the whole plant gets lazy and fragile.
JESS: So what do you actually do.
DEBBIE: I stick my finger in the dirt. Not a fancy tool, just my finger, a couple inches down. If it's dry down there, I water, and I water slow and deep so it actually soaks in instead of running off. If it's still damp, I leave it alone. Two, three times a week deep beats every day shallow, every time.
JESS: That is genuinely useful and I feel like I've been doing it wrong my whole life.
DEBBIE: Most people are. It's not a knock on anybody, the dry air here just lies to you about what your soil's doing.
JESS: Okay, before we run out of time, I want you to tell people what's coming in the next session, because I saw the outline and there's a thermometer involved.
DEBBIE: There is a thermometer involved. Next time we're talking about cold nights, which honestly matter more here than the hot days everybody worries about. People are so focused on our dry afternoons killing things, and meanwhile the thing that actually gets you is a clear night in late May that drops straight to freezing while you're asleep.
JESS: Like your tomatoes.
DEBBIE: Like my tomatoes. Six of them, mid-May, dead by morning because I planted on the date a neighbor told me to instead of paying attention to what my own yard was doing. So next session I'm bringing a cheap max and min thermometer, the kind that records the low overnight, and I'm going to show everybody how to put one in their own bed and actually read their own yard instead of trusting some average for the whole county.
JESS: I like that it's cheap. That's a very Debbie detail.
DEBBIE: It's like eight dollars. You do not need anything fancy. You just need to actually know what's happening in your own dirt instead of guessing.
JESS: Perfect. Okay, that's the episode. Stick your finger in the dirt, don't trust the seed packet, and we'll see everybody next week for cold nights and thermometers.
DEBBIE: See you then. And bring a coat, the classroom's always freezing.
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