Best Culinary Herbs and Best Vegetable Varieties for Southside

Before you know it, we will be looking at bud swell on fruit trees, some of our favorite perennials popping up and the garden fever will hit. I know I just bought another jar of Duke’s mayonnaise and some Ranch dressing in anticipation of some fresh leaf lettuce, spinach, and other greens while I wait for the tomatoes, cucumbers, and squash to get ready to go into the ground. Virginia Cooperative Extension and its Southside Master Gardeners will present a free Zoom educational program on Wednesday, March 10 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Kathy Conner Cornell will discuss the best culinary herb cultivars for Southside soils and weather. She and other Master Gardeners have had years of experience growing herbs in our clay soils and should be able to give you some ideas on what works and what doesn’t as well as the varieties to grow. Bill McCaleb will share information on the latest disease resistant varieties of some of our favorite vegetables that don’t sacrifice taste for breeding for disease resistance. There is continual research going on each year by different universities to come up with a better variety or cultivar. Sure enough, they do come up with plants that are more disease and even drought resistant. Or, how about a tomato or watermelon with a thinner rind or maybe a vegetable with reduced seed such as pepper, tomato, cucumber, or melon. Mark your calendar and come join us for a midday chance to learn more about what you might or might not want to plant and harvest this growing season. We had planned to have this earlier and also in person, but with COVID, all things have changed. You will need to register for this webinar to receive the link to join this educational program on Zoom. We plan on recording this program, but have it interactive, so if your connection isn’t very good, for those who joined us, you will receive notice of the recording within a week following the Zoom program. The link for registration is: https://virginiatech.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMuf-yvpzwoE9YZrSs-MZ-ReIivS_PTbZdM Registration will end at midnight on March 9, 2021.