Q: My buddy in Morro Bay has trouble growing tomatoes, but it’s easy for me at my house in Atascadero. He claims it’s because of the summer fog, but I think it’s how he takes care of them. Who’s right?
— Bill, Atascadero

A: Your friend happens to live in a microclimate that is not ideal for growing tomatoes. His climate is substantially cooler than yours in the summer and almost all standard tomatoes need nighttime temperatures above 55 degrees F to set fruit.

We all hear about how we live in a Mediterranean climate and we do, but there are smaller microclimates within San Luis Obispo County.

Finding your own microclimate zone will make it easier for you to plant a successful garden.

The USDA has developed 11 hardiness zones across the U.S. based on high and low temperatures. A more comprehensive mapping that takes into account multiple ecological factors has been provided by Sunset Western Garden Handbook. San Luis Obispo County can be divided into a few of these smaller microclimates.

Area 7 covers inland North County from Atascadero to Paso Robles and east. It has hot summers and mild but distinct winters. Plants that require marked seasons such as flower bulbs and deciduous fruit trees grow well here.

Area 14 includes Arroyo Grande and San Luis Obispo, and features a mild climate described as having chilly winters with year-round maritime air influences. Most nontropical plants do fine in this area.

Area 16 encompasses the coastal mountains. It gets more heat in the summer than area 17, but it still has maritime influences.

Area 17 covers the coastal towns of Cambria, Cayucos, Pismo Beach, Morro Bay, Los Osos, and west Nipomo. These areas have cool summers with fog and wind and mild winters. Heat-loving plants don’t do well in this zone.

Begin by determining your zone and follow the maxim: right plant for the right place; choose plants that are adapted to your zone. For more information on growing tomatoes, click this link to a free UC publication: Growing tomatoes in your home garden. And as always, the Master Gardener Helpline is ready to take your call and help with your gardening questions.

Photo by Alex Pajunas

Teresa Retzlaff

Teresa Retzlaff, owner of 46 North Farm in Olney, will present “Seed to Plate: Edibles for North Coast Gardeners to Grow and Cook” at the Seaside Public Library.

If You Go

‘Seed to Plate’

1 p.m. Saturday, May 31

Seaside Public Library

1131 Broadway, Seaside

503-738-6742

www.seasidelibrary.org

Posted: Wednesday, May 28, 2014 10:00 am

Farmer Teresa Retzlaff to give garden tips at Seaside library

0 comments

SEASIDE — Jump into the growing season at 1 p.m. Saturday, May 31 with “Seed to Plate: Edibles for North Coast Gardeners to Grow and Cook” at the Seaside Public Library. The event will be presented by local organic farmer Teresa Retzlaff of 46 North Farm and the North Coast Food Web.

An opportunity to pursue her passion for organic farming led Retzlaff to the Oregon Coast in 2003, where she and her husband, Packy, joined an emerging community of growers and local food enthusiasts. For six years they operated a small farm in Seaside, and in 2009 they started 46 North Farm on 18 acres of land they purchased in Olney, where they grow vegetables, fruit, herbs and flowers.

Retzlaff’s commitment to a healthy local food economy along the coast led to her become a founding member of the North Coast Food Web, an organization that builds connections in the local food landscape.

If you are having trouble growing vegetables in the North Coast’s short and cantankerous growing season, you can find some tips at this talk – Retzlaff will share her expertise on the subject. She will also provide appetizer examples of locally grown edibles and sell her plant starts.

Drop that shovel, put the hoe back in the shed, and bring your questions to the Seaside Public Library, at 1131 Broadway, for an afternoon of gardening delight. For more information, call 503-738-6742 or visit www.seasidelibrary.org

© 2014 Coast Weekend. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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Wednesday, May 28, 2014 10:00 am.

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Gardening,

Teresa Retzlaff,

Seaside Public Library,

Seed To Plate,

North Coast

Tomatoes are the most popular vegetables grown in the United States. Their fresh taste is so much better than anything you can get in the grocery store that they’re almost always in every garden in the country. The problem is that while tomatoes are easy to find and easy to grow, sometimes your results are disappointing. They are susceptible to a host of insects, diseases and wilts. I’ve seen books that are entirely about problems with tomatoes.

The rise in interest in heirloom varieties makes the problem even greater since few are disease resistant. But with a little bit of knowledge and planning, tomatoes can be a winner in your garden every year.

I’ve learned that there are several elements to consider when growing tomatoes and my results have gotten better each year.

1. Soil

When dealing with any garden, the soil is the first step. Healthy soil means healthy plants, and healthy plants naturally resist diseases and insects. They can sustain damage with little or no loss of productivity, meaning that fertilizers or pesticides are less likely to be needed. Using our system of raised beds, weedless soil and well-balanced, organic fertilizers means you’ll eliminate a lot of tomato problems from the start.

2. Raised Beds

They’re great for about a dozen reasons – most important is that they allow for better drainage, warmer soil, no compaction of the soil and they are easier to work with.

3. Varieties

Choosing the right varieties is important. I suggest you avoid all the complexities and hassles of trying to start your own plants from seed and stick with transplants. With all the farmers markets and locally run garden centers, it’s easy to find the plants you want. There are three main styles – beefsteak/slicing tomatoes for a delicious sandwich, roma/paste tomatoes for stews and sauces, and cherry/grape tomatoes to pop into your salad. What you grow is based on your family’s preferences. One plant per person is all you’ll usually need and a single cherry tomato can produce enough for a whole family!

There are two other considerations – bush/determinant vs. indeterminate and heirloom vs. modern plants. Bush plants grow only so tall and then stop growing. They are best for small gardens with limited space. Indeterminate plants will just keep growing and growing and have a continuous harvest once they mature.

If you’re going to grow tomatoes where you’ve had disease problems before then you should use some of the many newer varieties that have disease resistance built in. Their labels will be clearly marked. Don’t worry, they’ll still taste great. If you’re starting with a new garden or brand new potting mix you can try your hand with the heirlooms – there is a wonderful variety of sizes, shapes, tastes and colors. Experiment with as many as you can fit in your garden and you’re guaranteed to have a lot of fun. Next year you can drop the varieties you didn’t like and try some others.

Always clean up any dropped leaves, dropped or rotted fruit and put your old plants in the trash, not in your compost pile.

4. Planting times.

Resist the temptation to plant the first day the garden centers get their transplants. Usually that’s about a month before the last frost and you’re likely to lose your plants to cold weather. Even if they survive they won’t thrive. Instead they’ll be unhappy and won’t produce like the same plants put in at the proper time. Those will take off running and never look back. If you have a spot with good sunlight and you have a raised bed, you can start a week sooner than your neighbors.

5. Plant spacing, air circulation, pruning – stakes vs. cages.

You’re well on your way to becoming a tomato master. You have the right soil in a raised bed, you’ve chosen the right varieties and you’re waiting until the perfect time to plant. Next comes the biggest issue, since all tomato plants need support. The question is “which to use, stakes or cages?”

The key is air circulation. The more you have the fewer problems you’ll find with diseases that curl your leaves and kill your plants from the bottom up, just as your fruit is starting to ripen. Wire cages and circles are fine, but the issue is how a tomato naturally grows. It has a main stem and puts out branches, but in the elbows of those branches it also puts out what we call “suckers.” These become their own main stems with their own branches and suckers and you quickly end up with a tomato jungle.

I recommend that you use tall stakes and prune your plants to a single main stem. Check every two or three days and pinch off the suckers that appear. It doesn’t take that much extra effort and the result is a happier, healthier plant with bigger fruit and fewer problems. I also suggest that as the plant grows, you remove the lower branches to expose the bottom 12″ of the main stem. This really improves the air circulation throughout the plant but the main benefit is in resisting wilts and other fungal diseases. The theory is that rainwater hits the ground where the wilt lives and splashes onto the lower leaves of the plant. The leaves get infected and when water hits them, it splashes up to the next level. That’s why you should throw away pruned leaves and branches and any dropped or rotted fruit.

In the past I’ve used eight foot pressure-treated wood stakes that I sink one and a half to two feet into the ground. If you’re a purist you could seal them with polyurethane or go with an untreated stake. Recently I’ve discovered some great stakes that are metal tubes covered with plastic that you can find almost everywhere.

6. Planting transplants.

It’s easy. Pinch or clip off the bottom few branches, pop the plants out of their pots and plant a little more deeply than they were originally growing. With a good drink of water they’ll be off to a fine start.

7. Tie them up.

As your plants grow up their stakes you’ll need to tie them. Look for soft jute twine and cut off 9″ lengths in advance. You can loosely tie a bunch to the top of your stakes so you’ll have them handy. Wrap around your stake twice and then go under a branch and tie loosely. Resist the urge to tie up your plant too quickly. Let it grow up and strengthen in the breeze first. This will result in a stockier plant with a nice thick stem.

8. Companion plants and interplanting.

Certain plants when put together allow each to grow better, either from encouraging beneficial insects or confusing or repelling the bad bugs. Marigolds and nasturtiums are the best examples for tomatoes. Look for varieties that have a strong smell. Carrots and onions also do well with tomatoes. My experience has taught me that it’s better to mix things up in the garden rather than to have everything together. So I plant a tomato, a pepper and an eggplant and then another tomato instead of having all my tomatoes in a row.

9. Mulch, mulch, mulch!

Mulching is great for tomatoes. It keeps the moisture in the soil at an even level, keeps the weeds down, and stops water from splashing up to your plants. Pine needles and pine bark are good choices. A light layer of dried grass clippings is good, but don’t let it get too thick. I prefer to use compost as mulch. Weeds don’t grow in it and it has the same effects as other mulches, but it also fertilizes the soil.

10. Water

You want to water evenly and thoroughly. Uneven watering causes the fruits to crack and too much water affects the taste. So keep an eye on things and if it hasn’t rained and your plants look thirsty, give them a good soaking. It’s much better to water deeply every three days than lightly every day.

11. Fertilizing

I don’t recommend fertilizer while your plants are growing. What’s already in the soil should be fine. But spraying the leaves (foliar feeding) is great. You can use various solutions like fish emulsion, or you can make compost tea, which is also great for improving insect and disease resistance.

Eric Eitel is a farmer, father, personal trainer and owner of Instant Organic Garden Southern Maryland, a business that builds raised bed gardens for homeowners, schools, restaurants and businesses. He gives talks and teaches classes on how to make gardening easy.

Call Eric at 443-771-3003, email eric@instantorganicgarden.com or check his website www.instantorganicgarden.com

Plant smart, and pay attention to the soil.

“Your garden is only as good as your soil,” says David Salman, chief horticulturist at High Country Gardens, a Santa Fe, N.M., catalog that specializes in native and low-water plants.

Find out what nutrients your soil has — and what it’s missing — with a soil test, available through local cooperative extension offices at a nominal fee (home soil-test kits are less reliable, according to the Colorado State University Extension).

Encourage plant health by fertilizing with natural, organic fertilizers, which include fish emulsion and liquid seaweed, Salman says. Limit the use of chemical fertilizers; they don’t help build the soil.

“You will have more nutritionally complete vegetables if you have healthy soil,” he promises.

One trick Salmon recommends, especially for gardeners living in new housing developments, is adding a soil inoculant called mycorrhiza, a beneficial fungi. It’s found naturally in healthy soil but often needs to be added to a new garden.

“New gardens in new subdivisions, their soil is scraped off as part of construction,” Salman says. “You need to put beneficial fungi back in.”

Peas, beans and soybeans could benefit from legume inoculants, which are species-specific (a soybean inoculant cannot be used to improve peas’ growth). Read product labels carefully or ask your gardening center for assistance.

“Your beans will do OK (without it), but if you really want to crank out the beans, you can do that with the inoculant,” Salman says. “It’s kind of a ‘grandma’s secret’ to growing great beans.”

Plants that can offer high yields with low watering include leafy vegetables such as kale, lettuce and spinach; beans, snow peas and sugar snap peas; and some varieties of cucumbers and squash, he says. Plant vining beans and peas if you have space or can grow them up a fence or trellis; plant bush beans and peas in large pots if space is limited.

Sarah J. Browning, an extension educator for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, suggests planting radishes, carrots, peppers, zucchini and summer squash for summertime bounty. Peppers grow well in dry conditions, Browning says, and root crops don’t need frequent watering.

“If you watered them well and then mulched them, I think you could get a crop with fairly small amounts of water input,” she says.

Plant radishes early in the season or in part shade, and mulch them and other plants to retain moisture and combat weeds.

Browning recommends the cherry tomato cultivar Sun Gold and the slicers Big Beef and Celebrity as great-tasting high producers. Also look for disease-resistant tomato varieties, which are easier to grow.

He refers tomato lovers to Pennsylvania State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences Extension’s “Tomato Report 2011,” which lists the best varieties in its tomato trials.

Melissa Ozawa, a features editor for gardening at Martha Stewart Living magazine, suggests okra and Swiss chard; both are heat- and drought-tolerant. Melons also can handle less water once established because of their deep root systems, she says.

Not all vegetables grow well in all regions, so read seed packets, matching days to maturation to your region’s growing season, Salman advises.

“One of the big problems with horticulture in this country is, everyone tries to be one-size-fits-all, and this is just too big of a continent to do that,” he says. “You don’t want to grow a 120-day watermelon in Denver.”

Prolific, water-wise herbs include basil, oregano, parsley, thyme and rosemary.

Salman offers space-saving tips for herbs: Plant lavender and oregano along the drier edges of your garden, since they’re the most heat-tolerant, and plant Greek oregano and dill, plus annual herbs such as basil and cilantro, among the root vegetables.

Try growing perennials such as rosemary, English thyme, tarragon and lavender in your ornamental beds. They don’t require your vegetable garden’s mineral-rich soil, Salman says.

Drought-tolerant flowers include coneflowers, hummingbird mint, salvia and blanket flowers. Other cutting-garden winners are cosmos, zinnias, sunflowers and larkspur, Salman says. His favorite late-season bloomer is the Mexican sunflower.

“If there’s a bee or butterfly in a 10-mile radius, they’ll find that Mexican sunflower,” he says.

Resources

•  http://www.extension.unl.edu/

•  http://www.highcountrygardens.com/

•  http://www.marthastewart.com/

•  extension.psu.edu/plants/vegetable-fruit/research-reports/tomato-report-2011

After our seemingly endless winter, most of us are itching to load up on plants and get our hands dirty. Whether you grow on a grand scale or tend a couple of pots, chances are you’ll be buying plants at a garden center or plant sale. When you do, a growing chorus of voices is urging you to keep bees in mind.

Bee die-offs, colony collapse disorder and possible causes have made headlines. In fact, bee-friendly gardening was named a top national trend for 2014 by the Garden Media Group.

In smart communities across the country, people have been packing auditoriums for bee seminars, pushing for new legislation to protect bees and beekeepers and urging retailers to stop selling and using neonicotinoids, a widely used class of insecticides that some suspect is playing a role in recent bee die-offs.

Research on neonicotinoids’ impact on bees is underway. But in the meantime, several large players, including wholesale grower Bailey Nurseries, have decided to err on the side of caution and eliminate or sharply reduce their use of neonicotinoids.

Trying not to kill bees is only one piece of the pollinator-protection puzzle, however.

With more and more habitat lost to development and agriculture (corn and soybeans, the nation’s top crops, don’t provide nectar), bees need food, too. And that’s where home gardeners can really help, according to experts.

“The main thing is to plant more flowering plants,” says Heather Holm, of Minnetonka, Minn., a landscape designer and author of the new book “Pollinators of Native Plants: Attract, Observe and Identify Pollinators and Beneficial Insects With Native Plants” (www.pollinatorsnativeplants.com ).

Native bees, in particular, have a short flight distance — about 500 yards, she says. “If you and your neighbors aren’t providing forage, they will have a hard time finding food.”

From the pollinators’ perspective, it’s important to have a continuous succession of plants flowering throughout the growing season, Holm says. “In most gardens there is a gap,” especially in early spring and late fall. Holm advises gardeners to evaluate their landscape, identify the flower gaps and fill them. Good early-spring bloomers are woodland plants, such as bloodroot, Dutchman’s breeches and wild geranium. Good fall bloomers include asters and goldenrod.

And all flowering plants aren’t equal, from the bee’s perspective. “Stick with straight species” rather than cultivars, Holm advises. “If breeding has changed the flower color, it can also change the fragrance or nectar. It may look better to us, but it may not be attractive to bees.”

When choosing plants, opt for older, simpler varieties, Holm says, even if it means passing up the plants that catch your eye with their showy form or unusual hue. “Rethink how a bee or pollinator would see your garden — not just what you think is prettiest, with double flowers or a brand-new introduction in a cool color.”

Good plants for bees include coneflowers, liatris, salvia, catmint, catnip, hyssop and black-eyed Susans.

Of course, buying plants that attract bees may not be beneficial if the plants themselves are laced with toxic chemicals. A study released last summer by Friends of the Earth-US and co-authored by the Pesticide Research Institute, found that seven of 13 samples of garden plants at some large national retailers in Minneapolis, Washington, D.C., and the San Francisco Bay area contained neonicotinoids, including plants marketed as “bee-friendly.” That’s why bee advocates urge gardeners to make informed decisions when buying plants.

“Ask first, before you buy, confirm they’re not using systemic insecticides,” says Holm. “Look at smaller, local growers rather than those who buy from others. Do your homework.” The insecticides are so widely used that avoiding them can be a challenge, particularly when buying trees and shrubs, which have a longer growth cycle before they’re brought to market.

“These insecticides are everywhere; they’re so effective, and so safe for humans,” says Jean-Marc Versolato, production manager of plant health for Bailey Nurseries. Nonetheless, the wholesale grower recently discontinued spraying foliage with neonicotinoids, although it is still using small amounts of the systemic insecticides in granular form on some tree crops in the field. “Insects can really affect the growth of trees when they’re small,” he says.

Home gardeners who use insecticides are encouraged to avoid neonicotinoids, especially if they’re growing plants that are attractive to bees. “If people want to use perennial natives or heirlooms, they should not use systemic insecticides,” says Vera Krischik, associate professor of entomology at the University of Minnesota. “They’re completely legal, but they’re absorbed by the plant and can end up in the pollen or nectar.”

If the active ingredients include imidocloprid, clothandin, thamethoxan, acetamiprid or dinotefuran, the insecticide is considered a neonicotinoid and a potential threat to bees. While active ingredients must be labeled under law, inert ingredients are not always listed, but lumped under “other ingredients”; some of these are also believed to be detrimental to pollinators.

Consumers who are concerned about bees should be prepared to accept some imperfections, such as a few aphids on a plant they purchase, says Versolato. “Picture-perfect will be difficult without neonicotinoids.”

MORE GARDEN NEWS

Follow Bill Cary’s In the Garden blog at garden ing.lohudblogs.com.

More than 41,200 people across the nation were injured in 2012 while working in their gardens, reports the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. Conversely, many common flowers and plants have healing properties that can help gardeners treat their injuries.

Made from plants, as well as animals and minerals, homeopathic medicines offer some of the safest options for self-treatable conditions — and can be great for ailments and injuries that befall home gardeners. Because the risk of interaction with other drugs, supplements and herbs is minimal, experts say these natural medicines are a good first choice for early symptoms.  

Easily found in health food stores and pharmacies, these non-prescription medicines work naturally with the body instead of masking a problem, which is important if a more serious condition should arise.

With that in mind, here are some homeopathic treatments for common gardener ailments:

• Allergies: Relieving allergy symptoms provides a good example of the principle behind homeopathic medicines. Chopping a red onion has a “toxic” effect, causing eyes to water and burn until exposed to fresh air. When similar symptoms appear from allergies or a cold, a micro-dose of the red onion helps relieve those same symptoms. The red onion in this homeopathic form takes the Latin name of its source, Allium cepa.

Try Ambrosia (Ragweed) for watery nasal discharge with eyes that tear and itch and Sabadilla (Cevadilla) for hypersensitivity to the smell of flowers or itching in the back of the mouth. A good general allergy medicine is Histaminum, which is derived from histamine.

• Sore, Stiff Muscles: For gardeners suffering back and knee injuries, Arnica montana can be an essential gardening tool.

Commonly known as the Mountain daisy, Arnica’s healing properties were first recognized in the 16th century. Legend has it mountain climbers chewed the plant to relieve sore, aching muscles and bruises from falls. Today, this homeopathic medicine is used by professional athletes and surgeons for muscle pain and stiffness, swelling from injuries and bruising. For more information visit www.Arnicare.com.

• Sunburn, Blisters and Other Skin Conditions: In its homeopathic form, Calendula (Garden marigold) is one of the most versatile aids for skin irritations. Try a Calendula cream or ointment for blisters and calluses, cuts and scrapes, rashes, and chapped skin caused by wind, dry or cold air, or sun.

Used for centuries as a natural healing and soothing substance, Calendula’s wound-healing properties are due to essential oils, saponins, flavonoids and alkaloids. These compounds have skin healing properties.

• Bug Bites: To help relieve bee and wasp stings, as well as gnat, black fly or mosquito bites, take five pellets of Apis mellifica (Honey bee) every 30 minutes for up to six doses. And apply Calendula topically.

• Take Breaks and Relax: While many plants help us nurture our health, remember to practice common sense. Prepare properly by stretching and wearing sun block. Don’t overdo it. Take breaks. End your day with a soaking bath.

Relieve conditions at the first sign of symptoms before they grow out of control, so you can continue your gardening activities.

Photo Credit: (c) LittleStocker – Shutterstock.com

How can you get the most yield from a garden where space is limited, and water is too?

Plant smart, and pay attention to the soil.

“Your garden is only as good as your soil,” says David Salman, chief horticulturist at High Country Gardens, a Santa Fe, N.M., catalog that specializes in native and low-water plants.

Find out what nutrients your soil has — and what it’s missing — with a soil test, available through local cooperative extension offices at a nominal fee (home soil-test kits are less reliable, according to the Colorado State University Extension).

Encourage plant health by fertilizing with natural, organic fertilizers, which include fish emulsion and liquid seaweed, says Salman. Limit the use of chemical fertilizers because they don’t help build the soil.

“You will have more nutritionally complete vegetables if you have healthy soil,” he promises.

One trick Salmon recommends, especially for gardeners living in new housing developments, is adding a soil inoculant called mycorrhiza, a beneficial fungi. It’s found naturally in healthy soil, but often needs to be added to a new garden.

“New gardens in new subdivisions, their soil is scraped off as part of construction,” says Salman. “You need to put beneficial fungi back in.”

Peas, beans and soybeans could benefit from legume inoculants, which are species-specific (a soybean inoculant cannot be used to improve peas’ growth). Read product labels carefully or ask your gardening center for assistance.

“Your beans will do OK (without it), but if you really want to crank out the beans, you can do that with the inoculant,” says Salman. “It’s kind of a ‘grandma’s secret’ to growing great beans.”

Plants that can offer high yields with low watering include leafy vegetables such as kale, lettuce and spinach; beans, snow peas and sugar snap peas; and some varieties of cucumbers and squash, he says. Plant vining beans and peas if you have space or can grow them up a fence or trellis; plant bush beans and peas in large pots if space is limited.

Sarah J. Browning, an extension educator for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, suggests planting radishes, carrots, peppers, zucchini and summer squash for summertime bounty. Peppers grow well in dry conditions, says Browning, and root crops such don’t need frequent watering.

“If you watered them well and then mulched them, I think you could get a crop with fairly small amounts of water input,” she says.

Plant radishes early in the season or in part shade, and mulch them and other plants to retain moisture and combat weeds.

Browning recommends the cherry tomato cultivar Sun Gold and the slicers Big Beef and Celebrity as great-tasting high producers. Also look for disease-resistant tomato varieties, which are easier to grow. Browning refers tomato lovers to Pennsylvania State University’s College of Agricultural Sciences Extension’s “Tomato Report 2011,” which lists the best varieties in its tomato trials.

Melissa Ozawa, a features editor for gardening at Martha Stewart Living magazine, recommends growing okra and Swiss chard; both are heat- and drought-tolerant. Melons also can handle less water once established because of their deep root systems, she says.

Not all vegetables grow well in all regions, so read seed packets, matching days to maturation to your region’s growing season, Salman advises.

“One of the big problems with horticulture in this country is everyone tries to be one-size-fits-all, and this is just too big of a continent to do that,” he says. “You don’t want to grow a 120-day watermelon in Denver. They can grow those in Texas, but the maturation period in Denver is much shorter.”

Prolific, water-wise herbs include basil, oregano, parsley, thyme and rosemary, says Browning.

Salman offers space-saving planting tips for herbs: Plant lavender and oregano along the dryer edges of your garden, since they’re the most heat-tolerant, and plant Greek oregano and dill, plus annual herbs such as basil and cilantro, among the root vegetables.

Try growing perennials such as rosemary, English thyme, tarragon and lavender in your ornamental beds. They don’t require your vegetable garden’s mineral-rich soil, says Salman.

Drought-tolerant flower varieties include coneflowers, hummingbird mint, salvia and blanket flowers, according to Ozawa. Other cutting-garden winners are cosmos, zinnias, sunflowers and larkspur, says Salman. His favorite late-season bloomer is the Mexican sunflower.

“If there’s a bee or butterfly in a 10-mile radius, they’ll find that Mexican sunflower,” he says.

While April showers bring May flowers, the month of May is the official start of the season for warm-weather crops like tomatoes and peppers.

Why May? By the time Memorial Day rolls around, May’s soil is toasty warm, a condition that tomatoes and peppers need in order to establish good root growth before flowering and fruiting time.

Tomatoes and peppers, which can be planted in large pots or in the ground, are popular among all types of gardeners, including people who have little yard space, according to local garden centers. Succession planting, or staggering your plantings for extended harvests, means you can have tomatoes and other veggies into late fall. Tomatoes, which need full sun and regular water, are easily planted into mid-July.

“There are more than 700 types of tomatoes, and we offer 110 tomato and 43 pepper varieties,” says Tish Llaneza of Countryside Gardens in Hampton.

“Many have been recommended by customers over the years. All have pictures and stories on our Pinterest page, http://www.pinterest.com/csgardens. And, our herbs, come from A Thyme to Plant, the largest organic herb farm in Virginia.”

The vegetable garden is a great way to spend quality time and harvest quality food for the table, according to retired Virginia Cooperative Extension agent Jim Orband of Yorktown.

“There are minimum requirements when growing vegetables such as tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers, the salad vegetables – eight-plus hours of sun, access to water and routine monitoring of the plants,” Orband said.

You can call in tomato and other gardening questions to him monthly, including noon-1 p.m. Thursday, June 19, during his live program on the “HearSay” public radio program on WHRV-FM 89.5. Email questions to hearsay@whro.org or call 440-2665 on the show day.

“Watering needs to be done early in the day and the water needs to be applied around the base of the plant and not on the plants foliage. Use a porous mulch around your plants, such as pine needles that will help conserve water, reduce water evaporation, and reduce the spread of early blight disease.”

Here, meet local gardeners with some of their tips on growing great vegetables in any season:

Larry Nisley in Hampton

“Our spring season remained cooler longer than expected, so cool crops held on longer,” says Larry Nisley a Hampton master gardener and employee at McDonald Garden Center in Hampton.

“I recently removed old spring crops to prevent insects carrying over to my new crop and any diseases that might survive on the surface of the soil,” he said.

“My raised bed had an outstanding selection of leaf lettuces, radishes, onions and spinach. Successive planting was one of my efforts this year for a constant crop of cool-season crops. Now, I’m in transition to summer crops.”

Nisley suggests adding a thin layer of compost to recharge your soil for summer crops. This can be done before or after your plants have been placed, and are growing.

Garden lime is important especially for tomatoes, peppers, squash and watermelon plants, he adds. Lime helps prevent blossom end rot that occurs later into the summer growing season.

“I use and recommend Bio-Tone by Espoma when you plant tomatoes,” he said. “I also recommend planting tomato’s in a slanted angle into the ground but also use Bio-tone to encourage greater root development.”

During the growing season, Nisley uses a top dressing of Tomato-tone around the plant stem every two weeks. Tomato-tone has lime in the fertilizer which helps prevent blossom-end rot.

“I use a palm size or three tablespoons sprinkled around each plant,” he said.

To deter diseases and pests in the veggie garden, Nisley recommends proper spacing for good air circulation and light penetration.

There are some flowers whose brief moment of glory may put you off growing them. If they have a flowering season that is quite short it is easy to think that other plants and flowers will offer greater value. 

The peony is one such flower that is often dismissed on account of this shortcoming. 

But to do without peonies in my garden would be a great hardship. 

They are wonderfully spectacular, come in a wide range of colours from pure white to lemon yellow, through pink to deep crimson, and are wonderful when cut for the house. 

I wouldn’t be without them and have got over their short flowering season by planting them not only among other longer-flowering perennials, but also in a couple of short rows on the veg patch where they can be plundered for cut flowers without worrying about spoiling the overall effect of the bed or border.

When it comes to growing conditions, peonies enjoy any decent well-drained earth and, provided the soil is perked up with a bit of decent planting mixture, they are happy in chalky ground. For best results give them good light. They will cope with dappled shade, but in deep gloom they will be reluctant to do well.

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How can you get the most yield from a garden where space is limited, and water is too?

Plant smart, and pay attention to the soil.

“Your garden is only as good as your soil,” says David Salman, chief horticulturist at High Country Gardens, a Santa Fe, N.M., catalog that specializes in native and low-water plants.

Find out what nutrients your soil has — and what it’s missing — with a soil test, available through local cooperative extension offices at a nominal fee (home soil-test kits are less reliable, according to the Colorado State University Extension).

Encourage plant health by fertilizing with natural, organic fertilizers, which include fish emulsion and liquid seaweed, says Salman. Limit the use of chemical fertilizers because they don’t help build the soil.

“You will have more nutritionally complete vegetables if you have healthy soil,” he promises.

One trick Salmon recommends, especially for gardeners living in new housing developments, is adding a soil inoculant called mycorrhiza, a beneficial fungi. It’s found naturally in healthy soil, but often needs to be added to a new garden.

Peas, beans and soybeans could benefit from legume inoculants, which are species-specific (a soybean inoculant cannot be used to improve peas’ growth). Read product labels carefully or ask your gardening center for assistance.

“Your beans will do OK (without it), but if you really want to crank out the beans, you can do that with the inoculant,” says Salman. “It’s kind of a ‘grandma’s secret’ to growing great beans.”

Plants that can offer high yields with low watering include leafy vegetables such as kale, lettuce and spinach; beans, snow peas and sugar snap peas; and some varieties of cucumbers and squash, he says. Plant vining beans and peas if you have space or can grow them up a fence or trellis; plant bush beans and peas in large pots if space is limited.

Sarah J. Browning, an extension educator for the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, suggests planting radishes, carrots, peppers, zucchini and summer squash for summertime bounty. Peppers grow well in dry conditions, says Browning, and root crops such don’t need frequent watering.

Plant radishes early in the season or in part shade, and mulch them and other plants to retain moisture and combat weeds.

Browning recommends the cherry tomato cultivar Sun Gold and the slicers Big Beef and Celebrity as great-tasting high producers. Also look for disease-resistant tomato varieties, which are easier to grow.

Melissa Ozawa, a features editor for gardening at Martha Stewart Living magazine, recommends growing okra and Swiss chard; both are heat- and drought-tolerant. Melons also can handle less water once established because of their deep root systems, she says.

Not all vegetables grow well in all regions, so read seed packets, matching days to maturation to your region’s growing season, Salman advises.

Prolific, water-wise herbs include basil, oregano, parsley, thyme and rosemary, says Browning.

Try growing perennials such as rosemary, English thyme, tarragon and lavender in your ornamental beds.