{"id":13866,"date":"2020-05-07T13:15:46","date_gmt":"2020-05-07T20:15:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/?page_id=13866"},"modified":"2025-11-10T10:16:24","modified_gmt":"2025-11-10T18:16:24","slug":"food","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/mg\/food\/","title":{"rendered":"Grow Your Own Food"},"content":{"rendered":"
\r\n \n
\r\n\t\n\n

WSU is an equal opportunity provider. If you need a reasonable accommodation or language access to participate in an event, please contact Alex duPont, Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardener Program Coordinator, at alex.dupont@wsu.edu<\/a> or (360) 395-2367 at least two weeks prior to the planned event. Language access services, such as interpretation or translation of vital information, will be provided free of charge to limited English proficient individuals upon request.<\/i><\/sub><\/p>\n\n<\/div>\r\n\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Getting Started<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Want to supply your family with fresh, healthy vegetables throughout the season? Anyone with a sunny piece of yard, deck or balcony, or even a window box can grow food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are plenty of easy-to-grow vegetables.  See some recommendations from Master Gardeners below.  Plant only what you like to eat.  Be realistic. A 4’X4′ garden bed could keep you in salad greens or squash all summer, but it is not enough room to grow corn or pumpkins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Skagit County has a short growing season.  Make sure to consider days to harvest (noted on the seed packet) when selecting what to plant.  Also note the spacing recommended on the seed packet.  If plants are too close together, they have to steal nutrients from each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Location<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Do you have a spot that gets at least 6 hours of sun each day?  Do you really need all that lawn?  Consider converting part of your yard into a garden.  Gardens and lawns require similar care.  They both need good soil, sun and water.  Vegetables just require a little more attention.  Containers can make gardening very flexible.  Also, plant some veggies in with your flowers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Planning<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Start with a plan for your garden!  Decide how much and what kind of space you will have.  Do you want to plant directly into the ground, raised beds, or containers?  Do you just want salad veggies in between flowers?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keep your garden manageable.\u00a0 Raised beds can extend the season and protect from rabbits, snails, slugs.\u00a0 Use a cold frame, floating row covers, or tunnels to extend your growing season and protect from insects such as cabbage moths. The options are endless.\u00a0 If your space is small, consider vertical gardening for vining vegetables like cucumbers, pole beans, and some squashes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When to plant<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Skagit Valley, May is magic.\u00a0 Depending on where you live, March gives us our last hard freeze and some vegetables can be planted\/transplanted in March and April.\u00a0 However, frosts are typical in the area through early May.\u00a0 Most vegetables are sensitive to frost, so May is when you will really start gardening.\u00a0 Check out the\u00a0Planting Calendar<\/a>\u00a0extracted from the WSU Extension Bulletin on\u00a0Home Vegetable Gardening in Washington<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Consider winter gardening too.\u00a0 There are a number of vegetables such as carrots, parsnips, broccoli and kale that are planted in mid-summer and can be harvested throughout the winter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WSU is an equal opportunity provider. If you need a reasonable accommodation or language access to participate in an event, please contact Alex duPont, Skagit County WSU Extension Master Gardener Program Coordinator, at alex.dupont@wsu.edu or&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"parent":112,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_expiration_date":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"cahnrs_clean_page_nonce":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13866"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13866"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26592,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/13866\/revisions\/26592"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/extension.wsu.edu\/skagit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}