January in Louisiana is rather bleak, but LSU AgCenter horticulturist Dr. Tom Koske says we still can enjoy a fair amount of gardening.

LA BASE PROGRAM SITUATION: HOME VEGETABLE GARDENS; 2008.A statewide survey of over 500 Louisiana home vegetable gardeners was conducted in 2008. Results are presnted.

These NEW cultivars were some of those added to last year’s 2008 LSU AgCenter Louisiana Vegetable Planting Guide.

"Fall is a good time to plant greens in your home garden," says LSU AgCenter horticulturist Dr. Tom Koske. Crops include mustard, turnips, spinach, collards, kale and Swiss chard. All are cool-season crops with similar cultural requirements.

This publication is intended to introduce home vegetable gardeners to the various methods used to manage the many diseases that affect these crops.

Downy mildew is a potentially devastating disease of all cucurbits. Disease symptoms, development, control measures and color photographs of symptoms on pumpkin, cucumber and watermelon are included.

Gardeners are often unaware of a serious pest waiting for the spring vegetables to begin growing. These pests are small, microscopic animals called nematodes, and they attack the roots of many plants commonly grown in the garden. There are two major types of nematodes that cause the most problems for vegetables.

Many summer-blooming annuals, perennials and vegetables are setting seeds now, and you can harvest the seeds, store them and then grow a new crop of plants for your garden next year. This can be fun, save a little money and allow you to share seeds with gardening friends.

Fall and winter, the value of home gardens reaches $60.5 million.

Nitrogen (N) is a very important plant nutrient for all fall vegetable crops. A sufficient and continuous amount must be supplied to all plants to achieve good yields. It also is the nutrient most often lacking in soils.