Food Gardening

Growing your own food can be a very satisfying effort that pays off in a number of ways: your fruits and vegetables are fresher and you can choose the exact varieties that you and your family enjoy. Plus, you can save substantial amounts of money over purchasing them at the grocery or farmers' markets. We can provide resources and advice to help you start small, and gradually move up to producing more of your families food. Visit our pages in this section for more information on the first and last dates for planting vegetables in our area, setting up a rotation for your vegetable beds, and much more.

Cornell Resources

Cornell's home gardening website has links to excellent resources, including Vegetable Varieties for Gardeners, Vegetable MD Online, Vegetable Disease Factsheets, and how-to growing guides for more than 50 different vegetables. http://gardening.cals.cornell.edu/

Seed Saving

This Cornell University Library Guide on "Seed Saving" compiled by Jeff Piestrak includes links to relevant Cornell University initiatives, Conservation & Biodiversity Groups, Grower Resources/Directories/Support, Industry/Trade Groups & Resources, Seed Libraries, Seed Sovereignty, Other Seed Saving Organizations/Networks/Events, and General Learning Materials on saving seeds.

Last updated May 9, 2017

Food Gardening

Find Your Zone!

The 2012 USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map helps gardeners and growers determine which plants are most likely to thrive at a location. For the first time, the map is available as an interactive GIS-based map, for which a broadband Internet connection is recommended. Users may also simply type in a ZIP Code and find the hardiness zone for that area.

Seed Viability Information

This handout from Virginia Cooperative Extension covers how to save and start seeds, and includes a list of how long you can expect various types of vegetable seeds to remain viable.