Top Resources
- go.unl.edu/veggies101 - The First Steps of Vegetable Gardening
- Gardening at Home with Kids Resource (Insteading.com) - Great resource with tips on creating a kid-friendly garden, safety tips, kid-friendly gardening tools, and more!
- When to Harvest Fruits & Vegetables (NebGuide): This provides information on the proper ways and times to harvest fruits and vegetables for the best quality and storage.
- Lancaster Extension: Horticulture Your Yard and Garden: Links to all plants and trees grown in Nebraska with information on best practices, growing, harvesting, etc.
- Nebraska Fruits & Vegetables-GAPs Overview: This program is intended to assess a participant's efforts to minimize the risk of contamination of fresh fruits, vegetables, nuts and miscellaneous commodities by microbial pathogens based on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's "Guide to Minimize Microbial Food Safety Hazards for Fresh Fruits and Vegetables," and generally recognized good agricultural practices.
- National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service: These resources offer detailed information on production of specific horticultural crops, focusing on sustainable and organic production methods for traditional produce, and also introducing a range of alternative crops and enterprises. In these publications you can find information on strategies for more sustainable greenhouse and field production -- for everything from lettuce to trees.
- Midwest Vegetable Production Guide for Commercial Growers: The management practices, products, and cultivars discussed in this publication are the research- and experience-based recommendations of the institutions associated with the contributing editors and authors.
- USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map
The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map is the standard by which gardeners and growers can determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. The map is based on the average annual minimum winter temperature, divided into 10-degree F zones. For the first time, the map is available as an interactive GIS-based map, for which a broadband Internet connection is recommended, and as static images for those with slower Internet access. Users may also simply type in a ZIP Code and find the hardiness zone for that area. No posters of the USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map have been printed. But state, regional, and national images of the map can be downloaded and printed in a variety of sizes and resolutions. - Nebraska Tree Service: Avoiding the Top 10 Mistakes of Tree Planting: Eric Berg and Tim McDonnell
- Backyard Farmer - Helping you find soutions to your lawn and garden questions! Weekly show that airs live on Tuesdays on NET1 or archived on their website.
- University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension Master Gardener - This program extends the outreach of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln by providing volunteers with science-based horticulture education, which prepares them to share their knowledge with the citizens of the State.
NebGuides
- A Gardener's Guide for Soil and Nutrient Management in Growing Vegetables: How to manage soil and nutrients when growing vegetables is discussed here, as is soil testing, soil, pH, organic matter, and the use of commercial fertilizers.
- Vegetable Garden Seed Storage and Germination Requirements: Leftover vegetable seeds can be used next year if stored properly. This publication covers how to select and store seed, and conduct germination tests.
- Garden Guide - UNL Extension-Lancaster County: StartingTransplants Inside
- How to Grow Vegetables & Fruits: Fresh fruits and vegetables are an excellent source of nutrition which can be grown in your garden.The ease of planting, growing and harvesting these crops, along with the health benefits they bring, make fruits and vegetables the ideal gardening project.
- When to Harvest Fruits & Vegetables: This NebGuide provides information on the proper ways and times to harvest fruits and vegetables for the best quality and storage.
Controling a Safe Environment
- Pest Profiles by University of Minnesota Extension Vegetable and fruit crop pest profiles to help control the unwanted pests in your gardens.
- UNL Extension: Pests Diseases, insects, weeds, wildlife-more information.
- Insects, Spiders, Mice & More More information regarding insects, spiders, mice, etc. from Lancaster Extension.
- Biology and Management of Aphids in Organic Cucurbit Production Systems Biology & life cycles, damage from, & management of aphids.
*Photo (A 1917 USDA poster depicts Uncle Sam encouraging citizens to garden. (Courtesy USDA-NRCS; Library of Congress image)