Spring is a great time to start a garden.

New this year, Penn State Extension is offering live one-hour webinars titled “Victory Garden Reinvented.” The topics cover spring and summer vegetables to fruits and cover crops.

The webinars are free and are held at noon every Tuesday now through June 16. Preregistration is required. Those interested in the classes can attend one or as many as they like.

“We have received an overwhelming response for the Victory Garden Reinvented webinar series,” said Nancy Knauss, Penn State Extension’s state master gardener coordinator.

About 2,900 people registered for the classes.

Knauss thinks the strong interest is related to the current coronavirus situation.

“Some people are uncertain about the continued availability of fresh food, others will use gardening for exercise and an opportunity to be outdoors due to the restrictions caused by the pandemic,” she said.

PSU Extension has used webinars in the past for advanced training of master gardeners, but this is the first time they have offered it to the general public, Knauss said.

Usually, master gardeners do in-person seminars for the public, but that isn’t possible this year.

After the webinar, the video recording is put on the Extension website for anyone who wants to watch it again or who missed it the first time. Attendance gives the “students” a chance to ask questions. The answers are emailed to them later.

“We wanted to provide information to the many homeowners who are planning to grow fruits and vegetables for the first time this summer,” Knauss said.

Many novice gardeners have signed up for the webinars, as well as intermediate and advanced gardeners, she said.

When choosing a spot for the garden, Knauss recommends placing it in an area of the yard that gets at least six hours of full sun every day. After the site is chosen, have a soils test done, so it’s known what needs to be added to the soil to make it good for planting vegetables.

For first-time gardeners, Knauss recommends growing the vegetables that they know their families like to eat.

One of the more popular vegetables is tomatoes.

“Nothing quite compares to a homegrown tomato,” she said.

To register for the webinar, go to https://extension.psu.edu/victory-garden-reinvented-webinar-series.

In addition to the Victory Garden webinars, the Extension is also offering a Garden Hotline to help solve gardeners’ problems with soil health, sick plants, weird weeds and more. These live sessions are available to view online at noon on the first and third Friday now to June 19.

In order to ask the experts a question, a form must be completed a week before the session to give the experts time to thoroughly research an answer.

The form is available at https://pennstate.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_6fbKDzHz5bNgknj.