Reference Materials

• Circular 457: Home Vegetable Gardening in NM
  Provides general information for growing vegetables in home gardens. Includes the Eight Simple Steps For A Successful Garden, as well as a chart showing When to Plant Cool-Season and Warm-Season Vegetables. Revised 2014.

• Circular 457-B: Growing Zones, Recommended Crop Varieties, and Planting and Harvesting Information for Home Vegetable Gardens in NM, Companion to Circular 457.
  Includes a New Mexico growing zones map, as well as a table providing recommended crop variety and planting dates, days to harvest, planting instructions, and yield information.

• Guide A-150: Principles of Cover Cropping for Arid and Semi-arid Farming Systems
  Using appropriate cover crops can prevent or reduce soil erosion and enhance soil health. Discusses various considerations in choosing warm- and cold-weather cover crops.

Spring

• Codling Moth (Apple and Pear pest)
  Added to the Seasonal Gardening page under Spring: Codling Moth information, from USU Extension.

• Starting Seeds Indoors – Utah State University Extension
  • Video - How To: Start Seeds Indoors Video
  • Start Your Own Seedlings Indoors Handout
  • Grow Your Own Transplants At Home Article
• Suggested Planting Dates
  Note: Each site and each season are unique. Know your microclimate.
  
  • Circular 457: Home Vegetable Gardening in NM
  • USU Vegetable Garden - Suggested Vegetable Planting Dates for Utah

• Fruit Tree and Orchard Pruning
  • Guide H-156 - Tree Pruning Techniques
    NMSU Extension, Curtis W. Smith.
  • Guide H-327 - Pruning the Home Orchard
    NMSU Extension, Revised by Shengrui Yao.
  • Pruning Fruit Trees Clip with Confidence
    USU Extension
  • Training and Pruning Peach Fruit Trees
    USU Extension
  • Training and Pruning Apple Trees
    USU Extension
  • Pruning the Orchard
    USU Extension

• Grapes
  
  • Guide H-303 - Pruning Grapes to the Four-Arm Kniffin System
    NMSU Extension, Revised by Gill Giese.
  • Grapevine Pruning
    NMSU Extension Demo Video with Gill Giese.
  • Pruning Grapevines - First Year
    NMSU Extension Demo Video with Gill Giese.

Summer

• Summer Gardening FAQs
  Albuquerque Master Gardeners site.

Fall

• September and October
  September is a good time to plant cool season vegetables for fall harvest as well as prep your garden for fall/winter.
  • Remove diseased or waning warm season vegetables.
  • Make room in your bed for your fall planting. It is OK to cut or pull producing plants; you do not need to have every single tomato, pepper, eggplant, or squash up until frost. Keep enough to enjoy and remove the rest.
  • Incorporate compost into your planting beds and re-hydrate your planting beds for adequate soil moisture throughout.
  • Recommended vegetables for planting include peas, carrots, beets, kale, chard, lettuce, radish, turnips.
  • Many can take a light frost, but a sheet or row cover to protect is recommended.
  • Establish cover crop now to last all winter.

• Hoops, Mulch, and Cold Frames
  
  • Circular 606: High Tunnel Hoop House Construction for NM
    Published by Del Jimenez, Agriculture Specialist, Rural Agricultural Improvement and Public Affairs Project RAIPAP].
    See also these related videos:
    
    1. The 3 Minute High Tunnel Build
    2. High Tunnel Manual Firring Strips
    3. High Tunnel Manual Diagonal Measure
    4. High Tunnel Manual Rib Assembly
    5. High Tunnel Manual Rib Attachment
    6. High Tunnel Manual Wiggle Wire
    7. High Tunnel Manual Handles
    8. High Tunnel Manual Batten

• Mid September - Mid October
  • A good time to plant garlic depending on your frost/freeze date range.
  • Create raised beds for planting next year:
    * Fill your raised beds with rotting wood, cut plant material, compost, dried leaves/straw, manure, and garden soil.
    * Water adequately and let it rest for planting next year.
    * You may need to top the bed with compost and soil next spring due to shrinkage.

• Guide H-234: Garlic Production NM
  Tips for planting garlic in your garden. Discusses varieties, planting, pest control, and harvesting.

• Fall/Winter Gardening Tips
  Checklist for Trees, Perennials, Annuals, Vegetables, and Houseplants by John Garlisch.

Winter

Publications For Winter Gardening

• Fact Sheet-09-39 - Plant Season Extension in the Desert
  Benefits of extending the growing season; Selecting and establishing the growing site; Sun exposure; Slope and elevation, etc. Includes sections on Mulch, Hoop Houses, and Low Tunnels. University of Nevada CES.

• Season Extension Tools & Techniques
  Windbreaks, Cultivar Selection, Floating Row Covers, High and Low Tunnels, and more. Univ. of Kentucky School of Agriculture CES.

• Extending the Garden Season with Season Extension
  Cold Frames, Greenhouses, as well as High & Low Tunnels and Cold Frames. Univ. of Nebraska-Lincoln, Nebraska Extension: Community Environment.

• Circular 606: High Tunnel Hoop House Construction for NM
  Discusses materials and includes step-by-step instructions for building these affordable practical high tunnel hoop houses.

• Building Hoop Houses
  Downloadable, 32-page book: Hard-Sided High Tunnel Construction, by the University of Wyoming Extension.

Videos

• How to Extend the Growing Season
  Learn about structure to extend your growing season, including this video about building a cold frame, by Utah State Univ. Extension.

• How to Build a Low Tunnel Part 1: Bending low tunnel frames
  Building a mini-hoop; demonstrates how to bend 10-foot EMT conduit with a four-foot pipe bender, by University of Illinois Extension Horticulture.

Hoops

• Extending the Gardening Season Using Raised Beds, Parts 1-4
  Four videos showing the steps to building the mini hoops from The Univ. of Maine Cooperative Extension.

• Plans and Materials List
  Downloadable PDF. Drawings and items for building mini hoops on top of the raised bed from The Univ. of Maine Cooperative Extension.