Heber Valley Life

Author: Sandra Olsen

  • Spring Awakening

    Spring Awakening

    Spring in Heber Valley arrives in a rush of green. Daffodils and tulips pop up like cheerful exclamation points, warming our hearts right along with the sun. It’s the season that makes you want to get your hands dirty—in the very best way.

    Here’s a fun gardening secret: flowers and vegetables love growing together. Interplanting blooms with edibles boosts beauty and pollination. So why not tuck a few pots onto your patio or add a couple of raised beds to your yard? Even with a busy life, starting—or expanding—a garden is absolutely possible. Yes, really.

    Growing food at home—whether in the ground or in raised beds—builds more than nutrition. It builds confidence. And it doesn’t have to be complicated or labor-intensive. With a few simple adjustments, you can create a wildly beautiful, productive garden in a single season, growing a surprising amount of food in a relatively small space.

    The real secret to a thriving, organic garden is soil nutrition. Rich compost makes all the difference. Making your own compost is easy, inexpensive, and often better than anything you can buy—without the risk of burning crops, which can happen with chemical fertilizers.

    One of the best soil boosters? Well-rotted manure. Horse and cattle owners often have years-old piles they’re happy to share, while chicken and goat owners clean pens regularly and usually give away their nutrient-rich manure. Gently rake or lightly shovel it into the top few inches of soil. For an added boost, you can spray or sprinkle organic amendments like seaweed extract or earthworm castings.

    A light dusting of Epsom salts and sulfur pellets can also help. These inexpensive additions gently lower soil pH, making minerals more available to plants and encouraging stronger growth and better fruit production.

    Compost ingredients are everywhere. Dried or green plants, grass clippings, fallen leaves, pine needles—even weeds—are packed with essential nutrients. Old hay and straw make excellent mulch, especially when layered 12 to 18 inches deep to suppress weeds. Worried about seeds hiding in straw? Just pile it up and water it first—any sprouts will die before the straw ever reaches your garden.

    Sawdust or shredded wood chips encourage beneficial fungi and bacteria that help deliver more nutrients and water to your plants—sometimes up to seven times more. You can plant right into two or three inches of mulch by scattering seeds in wide rows or creating close rows with a hoe and lightly covering them with soil.

    Wide rows—anywhere from one to four feet across—are ideal. Space plants so they touch at maturity, which helps retain soil moisture and keeps roots happy. Plants with moist roots thrive, and underground networks of beneficial fungi even help them share resources with one another.

    You can mix compost ingredients all at once or layer them in place—the earthworms will happily do the rest. Over time, that thick mulch settles down to about four to six inches. As plants grow, keep topping it off with fresh mulch: lawn clippings, pine needles from a neighbor’s tree, or sawdust from a woodshop. With healthy mulch, watering just once a week is often enough to keep plants green, flowering, and thriving.

    This year, my husband and I are transforming a garden area east of our high-tunnel greenhouse near the creek. With a small pavilion and lawn, it’s a perfect spot to blend beauty and productivity. Protected from the harsh afternoon sun, it’s ideal for pollinators, too. We’ve planted a generous three-foot-wide row of black-eyed Susans and wildflowers to draw bees right into the greenhouse.

    Where we once grew greens and herbs on landscape fabric, we’re now planting potatoes, onions, carrots, and beets. Between wide rows, we’ll tuck in chives, leeks, and bush beans to support soil health and add nitrogen. Across the creek, where orchard grass has stubbornly held on for decades, we’ll reclaim the space with landscape fabric, compost, and towering sunflowers—followed by corn and black oil sunflowers—to create a stunning, productive wall.

    Along the stream, wildflowers and herbs will thrive in the cool, moist air. Lemon balm, spearmint, peppermint, and kitchen staples like basil, rosemary, and oregano will fill the space with color and fragrance. We also love scattering seed mixes under fruit trees—adding charm while improving tree health with nitrogen-fixing greens and groundcover.

    Near the fences, tall herbs like borage mingle with easy-to-harvest edibles such as red amaranth, chia, and flax. Vertical arches made from cattle panels support pole beans and winter squash, while cucumbers and tomatoes climb fences. Large squash happily wander beneath fruit trees, right where they belong.

    A garden like this feeds more than your table. It nourishes body and soul, brings joy to family life, and offers the quiet comfort of knowing you can grow your own delicious, highly nutritious food. Spring is calling—and it’s a beautiful time to answer.

    Heber Valley Self-Reliance Group

    hebervalleyready.org

    Wasatch Fire District
    251 E 1200 S – Heber City

    ALL COMMUNITY CLASSES ARE FREE

    MARCH 2026

    Steady Minds in Crisis
    Psychological Approach to First Aid

    Don’t Go Hungry
    Planning for Food Security

    Everyday Emergencies
    First Aid for People & Pets

    Your Bags are Packed
    From Getting Home to Never Going Back

    APRIL 2026

    Liquid LIFELINE
    Water Security in a Crisis

    Nourishment & Morale
    Food Storage & Off-Grid Cooking

    Neurological Emergencies
    Seizures, Strokes, & Sudden Neurological Events

    May 2026

    PANDEMICS
    Preparedness & Shelter in Place

    WHEN BABIES CAN’T WAIT
    Emergency Childbirth

    POWER & LIGHT IN EMERGENCIES
    Light Sources When the Grid is Down

  • Winter Prep for Gardening in Heber Valley

    Winter Prep for Gardening in Heber Valley

    There is a garden in every childhood, an enchanted place where colors are brighter, the air softer, and the morning more fragrant than ever again.  —Elizabeth Lawrence

    Winter is Here! Mornings in Heber Valley bring a crisp, refreshing chill. Snow-covered mountains promise renewed streams for spring gardens. Tall pines look majestic, stretching to hold their share of snow.

    Next year’s garden plans whisper softly. “A new zinnia bed by the wall would brighten this area. The plum trees bore delicious fruit; I’d love peach or nectarine trees by the swing. The back veggie garden could be enlarged for more pesticide-free greens and corn. A scarlet runner bean trellis would charm the back door.”

    If you haven’t considered red or elephant garlic for your spring garden, there’s still time to plant.   Hardy garlic bulbs can be planted in workable soil in early spring, allowing them to benefit from the necessary freezing nights and spring sunlight. Fresh garlic will elevate your soups and sauces, adding a gourmet touch to your cooking. It’s also excellent for repelling garden pests.

    Dreams of spring blossoms will help you through the long winter. Daffodils, tulips, crocuses, and hyacinths can be planted in early spring. After planting your bulbs, a thick layer of mulch will protect them from freezing and provide soft soil to push through in late spring.

    Plants don’t like bare ground. In our valley, with heavy clay soil, it is easy for hardpan to develop. In the early spring, when the snow melts, there are many materials to discover that make a rich, nutritious mulch. Mulch can be made in a box, a barrel, or a simple pile on the ground.

    Without plowing or tilling, layers of clipped grass, old piles of fallen leaves, shredded bark or sawdust, well-rotted manure, old garden weeds, garden waste, and hay can be spread over an area, 12 to 18 inches deep, to decompose until planting time. This is called sheet composting. Spread it out over a new or old garden area. It will suppress new weeds in the spring, especially in very weedy or grassy areas where you plan to start a new garden.

    Beneath this quiet, dark, protective layer of soil, something remarkable occurs: the soil life, including Mycorrhizae fungi, forms a living network with the plants, boosting their ability to absorb water and nutrients—up to seven times more—across a larger root zone. Tiny Rhyzobacteria fix nitrogen for plant use and push out disease-causing bacteria. Old-fashioned organic gardening practices produce fruit and vegetables that are unimaginably delicious.

    By late spring, the thick, nutritious mulch will have reduced itself to about two to four inches. The soil life will have turned weeds and sticks into rich, black, living soil. When you pull the mulch back, you will see the dark, fluffy soil ready for plants and seeds to thrive. Your soil has become a living organism.

    This thick mulch, spread in the fall, winter, or early spring, means you will have very few weeds to pull. Your garden will require very little weeding or digging with a shovel. A simple trowel is usually all you need to create a place for plant starts or seeds.

    In Heber Valley, our soil tends to be highly alkaline, with a pH usually around 8.5 to 9.0—levels at which most plants struggle to thrive. Most garden plants prefer a pH between 6.5 and 7.5. Fortunately, there’s a simple solution: yellow or green sulfur pellets. You can sprinkle them around your garden by hand or use a small grass spreader for more even coverage. You can do this even in the snow. Unlike chemical nitrogen, sulfur won’t burn your plants, so you can apply it generously.

    Sulfur pellets are the best-kept secret for a productive garden in our valley. Sulfur is vital for all living things in your garden, playing a key role in chlorophyll formation, which allows plants to capture sunlight efficiently. It also helps balance soil minerals by lowering pH to levels that make nutrients more available for absorption. Additionally, sulfur strengthens plants, boosting their resistance to pests and diseases. In many soils throughout the Great Basin, sulfur deficiency is so severe that crops like beans and peas struggle to grow.

    Do you have a beautiful fruit tree that bears little or no fruit? Sprinkle two or three cups of sulfur pellets or Epsom Salts (a combination of sulfur and magnesium) around the roots, and you will most likely have a bountiful harvest next year.

    Many of us enjoyed a bountiful harvest this year, with branches so heavy with fruit that they sometimes broke. Proper pruning of fruit trees in the fall or spring opens up the tree, letting sunlight reach every branch and improving air circulation. Pruning also strengthens branches, ensuring they get enough nutrition to grow thick and sturdy. It naturally limits excess fruit, reducing the need for additional thinning. The result? Peaches and apples that are large, round, and perfectly rosy.

    Winter is now upon us, and your shovel, trowel, rake, hoe, and pruning shears have served you well.  Before storing them for the season, give your tools a thorough cleaning. Rust can be easily removed by soaking tools in vinegar, then brushing them with a toothbrush or wire brush until all rust is gone. Wooden handles need a rubdown with linseed oil. Wipe the garden tool metal with WD-40 or motor oil. Be sure to hang or place your tools in a safe, dry spot. Take this time to stock up on any tools you might need for next year.

    When it’s time to sharpen your garden tools, try these simple tips. Start with 60-grit sandpaper or a belt sander to remove dull edges, then follow up with 100-grit for a sharper finish. You can also use a double-sided metal rasp file; begin with the coarse side, then finish with the finer side for a precise edge.

    Your garden will be resting for winter, and so should you. Take time to care for yourself. The most important gift you can give your garden is you, the gardener. You are its dreamer, architect, creator. The one who nourishes both the soil and your loved ones, bringing tranquility to your soul.

    More info: hebervalleyready.org

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