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Walnut Creek’s Ruth Bancroft is a national authority on drought-resistant gardening. Twice a month, she and her staff share their knowledge with readers.

Q In the column about California natives that provide summer color, several plants were mentioned which have summer flowers. Are there others which give summer color by way of their fruit?

A Indeed, some native plants produce showy fruit in summer. Among cacti, California’s prickly-pears are one example. Among shrubs, one stand-out is Berberis nevinii, also known as Mahonia nevinii. (Some authorities prefer to include the Mahonia species within a broad concept of Berberis, while others keep the two as separate groups.)

By either name, this plant is an attractive, dense shrub with leaves that are divided into three or five small gray-green leaflets. These have small prickly teeth along the edges, and may grow up to two inches in length, though they are often shorter. The Sunset Western Garden Book gives a height of 6 feet for the species, but our plant at the Ruth Bancroft Garden is over 10 feet in height and width.

Berberis nevinii produces thousands of small yellow flowers in spring, mostly March and April. The small shiny berries that follow begin to turn red in June, contrasting nicely with the bluish foliage through late summer and into fall.

Being native to Southern California, B. nevinii can survive with no

watering at all through our hot, dry summers, but it does not mind receiving an occasional drink. If planted at the back of the garden, its density can screen off a wall or fence while providing a backdrop for smaller plants.

Q Your earlier column mentioned the Sago Palm, and I feel compelled to write about the toxicity of this plant to animals as well as humans. Mature female plants produce red seeds; both these and the leaves are toxic. My dog chewed on several seeds and, within hours, was deathly ill. Children might think the bright red seeds look like candy, so it is important to advise gardeners of the danger.

A The Sago Palm is one of many poisonous garden plants; it is good to be aware of this. Other common toxic plants include oleander, azaleas and rhododendrons, daffodils, cotyledons and euphorbias. The Sago Palm pictured with the earlier column was male, and so will not produce the red seeds; its tough, leathery leaflets are unlikely to be chewed on.

Still, more awareness of plant toxicity is definitely warranted.

If you have a question for the Ruth Bancroft Garden, email info@ruthbancroftgarden.org. For tour and event information, go to www.ruthbancroftgarden.org.

The humidity has dropped and nighttime lows are in the 60s. If you still have good-looking tomatoes or squash, you can keep them flowering and fruiting by trapping some of the daytime heat around them. Using black plastic for mulch and setting two-liter soda bottles filled with water around the plants (the water traps the heat and then releases it at night) will shield these tropical plants from chilling effects caused by cooler temperatures.

Morgan Milne, owner of Red Beard Farms in Castle Hayne, has spent the past few weeks trying to keep late squash and tomato crops healthy and disease-free during non-stop rain while fretting about fall planting.

Milne, a 2008 graduate of North Carolina State University, worked at other farms prior to Red Beard, but he just finished his first year on his own. He said it’s been a difficult year, but Milne is optimistic about the fall season.

“If only it would stop raining long enough to plant!” he said after a recent wet spell.

We stood in the greenhouse talking among trays of transplants waiting to go in the ground. A rogue hen made her way inside, past the chicken fence, and started running down the aisles, chasing insects and going for the tender young seedlings.

If the chickens don’t get them, these seedlings will be available for sale at the Riverfront Farmers Market in a few weeks, just in time for home gardeners to get growing.

Cool-weather gardening

If you’re a new gardener, fall is a good time to stick your toe in the soil of gardening. It’s cooler out, making for a more pleasant experience all around. Pests are less of a problem, though disease can spread easily if it rains a lot. Without baking sun, new transplants establish roots quickly and with less stress.

Fall crops are perfect for everyday eating. Staples such as lettuce, broccoli and carrots can find their way into lunch boxes and onto the table without creative cooking experiments. Experienced gardeners know that the fall and winter gardening seasons in the Wilmington area can be even more rewarding than summer.

You can plant fall vegetable seeds and transplants from now through mid-October. Milne reminds gardeners that soil preparation is key for healthy, tender greens.

“Prepare for cole crops (broccoli, cabbage, pak choy, collards, and cauliflower) by improving soil fertility before planting,” he said.

He suggests tilling in one and one-half to two times your typical amount of slow-release fertilizer. Plant Tone is a good, organic choice for home gardeners.

You can harvest carrots throughout the winter by sowing a row every two weeks for the next month. If you’ve avoided planting carrots because you don’t want to thin them, Milne has a solution.

“I just pick the true ‘baby’ carrots as they grow to thin out the rows, leaving room for others to grow larger,” he said. “The smaller carrots are perfectly good to eat.”

Ignoring the pests

“I’m one of the few farmers who will bring produce to market that might have a bug on it,” Milne said. “People tell me they are actually OK with that because they know the plants haven’t been drenched in chemicals.”

The most frequent questions I get when working with beginning gardeners are along the lines of, “What is this insect on my plant and how can I kill it?”

“Insects are around and they have to eat, too,” Milne said. “A home gardener should never have to spray pesticides. You can pretty much hand-pick the bad ones. Ignore the rest.”

While television commercials would have you believe otherwise, growing your own edibles need not involve taking a bath in pesticides. I’ve found that a diverse garden with many types of vegetables, flowers, trees and shrubs is fairly resistant to pest problems. Occasionally I’ll lose a whole tomato to hornworms, but by forgoing sprays to kill the bad bugs, I’ve allowed the good bugs to flourish and do their jobs.

To pick or to pick up?

If growing and picking your own vegetables sounds exhausting, overwhelming or won’t fit with your busy fall schedule, you can still eat healthily while supporting local agriculture.

“We’re one of the only local farms doing a fall CSA (community supported agriculture) program,” Milne said. “I’m hoping it will give us the push we need to start our second year strong.”

Share owners can pick up a half bushel of Read Beard Farms produce each week at Tidal Creek Co-Op. The CSA term will run from October through December and will include the last of the summer vegetables –squash, tomatoes, and okra – and plenty of fall greens such as kale, pak choy and broccoli. Multi-colored carrots, collards and cabbage are also planned.

Interested individuals can email Morgan at redbeardfarms@gmail.com or call 612-7216.

Features: 343-2343

The gardening season is winding down, but there are some things you can do to get your garden ready for next year.

Begin by reviewing this year’s garden and make some notes. Consider what varieties and techniques worked well this year; what you would like to change; what new vegetables you would like to try? Put your notes with this year’s leftover seeds so you will know where to find them in the spring.

Here are some things you can do to get ready for next year:

Clean up this year’s garden: Remove all plants, or turn them under for compost if they are not diseased so they can decay in the soil and become organic matter enriching it. Do not work diseased plants into garden soil.

Have a soil test done and apply lime now if the soil pH is low: A good pH for most vegetables is between 6.0 and 6.5. Leaves turned under in the fall in vegetable gardens will decay all winter increasing organic matter in the soil by spring planting. The soil will be easier to work and more productive.

Collect any leftover garden chemicals and fertilizers, and store them in a dry place: If they freeze or become moist, they may be unusable, harmful or ineffective. Lock them up where small children cannot get into them. Rinse out sprayers, clean their filters and hang them upside down to dry.

Browning needles

We are getting a lot of calls asking about brown needles on white pine trees. The browning of needles is common on white pines. If you look closely, the brown needles occur just inside the branch tips on the previous year’s growth, not the current year’s growth. Needles remain on white pine trees for two years before they shed. The needles that turn brown are the 2-year-old needles that are in the process of shedding and will continue to shed throughout the winter before new growth begins in the spring.

Peony power

The peony is one of the oldest and most easy-to-maintain perennials grown in flower beds. It has beautiful flowers in the spring and good foliage throughout the growing season.

Peonies require good fertilizer, well-drained soil and at least 6 hours of sunlight every day. Best growth may require additional peat moss or compost added to the soil. After 8 to 10 years, peonies may be lifted from the ground, divided into tubers that contain three to five bulbs and replanted. Do this before Sept. 30.

Email your questions to bleigh1@utk.edu. Include your name and where you live. Call the Tipton County Extension office at 901-476- 0231 or the Shelby County Extension office at 901-752-1207. Booker T. Leigh is the extension director for Tipton County.