Whether you live in Butte with 80 frost free growing days, or Miles City with 150 frost free growing days, it still means one thing……not a very long growing season. This especially challenges those of us who have come from other areas of the U.S. as I did.  Being from Oklahoma, with a 2 month longer growing season, it did take some major culture adjusting to get a proper garden out of such a limited growing season.

Here are several angles to work with, to get more from your short growing season.  To start with, what are your frost free growing days?   To find out, determine the average first frost date in the fall and the average last frost date in the spring….in your specific area.  It’s the days between these frost dates that are the “average” frost free growing days.  Now you know the growing season you have to work with.  This is where maturity days on seed packets really become important.  Select varieties that are faster to mature, to not only get something from your plants, but more. 

Next, outline your plan of action.  Sketch out a garden plan to help with plant placement and plant amounts.  Then figure out on paper, the dates you’ll need to start your transplants, in time for your planting day in spring..  (To start my tomato transplants, I need to begin the middle of February.)  Use a calendar, or get a gardener’s journal to keep your schedule and garden plans in.  “A Montana Gardener’s Book of Days” by Dr. Bob Gough, available at local book stores, is just such a journal, plus it is packed with many helpful seasonal tips. 

Vegetables fall into 3 categories, very hardy (these survive hard frosts and can be planted 2-3 weeks before the average last freeze), half hardy (these survive light frosts and can be planted 2 weeks before average last freeze), and warm season (these do not withstand frost and should be planted around the average date of the last freeze.  The early gardens you see are those gardeners who know you can plant many things before that last freeze date. 

A great resource to help you fine tune all this, is at your local county extension office.  Two bulletins that will do a lot of the work for you are 1) “Can I Grow That Here?”, and 2) “Planting a Successful Home Vegetable Garden.”  “Can I Grow That Here?” is a planting calculator, that can be used by anyone in the state to determine transplant starting and earliest garden planting..  “Planting a Successful Home Vegetable Garden” gives guidelines on starting your own transplants, and also divides the vegetables according to their frost hardiness.

An often missed step in early planting is hardening off the transplants, whether grown yourself, or purchased elsewhere.  This process involves the transition of your tender transplants from indoor or greenhouse grown to outdoors Montana.  Hardening up transplants should ideally take about 2 weeks and starts by placing them outside, in a semi sunny, non windy area.  (A cold frame is nice for this, but not a requirement.)  If freezing temperatures are expected, then move plants back into a protected area, such as a garage.  (Having transplants in a wagon or garden cart makes moving them inside much easier.)  Each day gradually increase the sun and wind exposure, bringing transplants inside if freezing temperatures return.   At the end of two weeks your plants should be in the same type exposure they will be planted in.  (During this time pay close attention to watering needs, they will need more water.)

Some other tips to help your garden grow:

-You can often plant earlier in raised beds, as these warm faster in the spring.
-Utilize a soil thermometer.  Both above bulletins outline the proper soil temperature for seed germination.  Knowing this can eliminate the extra work of replanting time and again because the soil was too cold.
-Utilize a moisture meter.  This helps to monitor moisture needs of plants not only in pots but in garden soil as well.  Vegetable plants, especially young transplants, can be set back severely if they get too dried out. 
-Give your garden the best soil and fertility possible.  Adding organic amendments is always a plus, but if you have soil challenges, get a soil test done to determine what’s truly needed.  Request the bulletin “Home Garden Soil Testing & Fertilizer Guidelines” from your local Extension Office for more details on soil testing.
-Be sure to locate garden in an area with at least 8 hours of sun, away from trees, near a water source, and most of all, nearby your home for best tending. 
-Extend your garden season.  Floating row covers help with early spring frost protection.  Devising simple plant coverings for fall frosts can help you get those last tomatoes, beans or other frost tender crops.
-Finally, keep track of the varieties you’ve grown.  Experimenting with 2-3 varieties, like tomatoes, makes for great gardening.  The challenge comes when you are trying to remember if you have grown a certain variety before.  A simple recipe card box can make easy work of this.  Mark the box tabs with crop types….one tab could be tomatoes.  Put in an index card listing the tomato varieties you grew for 2007, put 2007 at top of this index card and file under tomatoes.  Rate each variety on how it produced for you.  Now it will be very easy to see what your best tomato was in 2007, and to test it against new varieties in 2008.  A great way to increase production.

A proper garden can be had by most of us who now call Montana home, if we utilize these tips and all others we learn on the way.

By: Amy P.K. Grandpre, Yellowstone County Horticulture Assistant
Work Email: agrandpre@co.yellowstone.mt.gov
Work Phone:  406-256-2821   Home:  406-628-7372
Home email:  mtamy1@netzero.com