Vegetables, Fruits, and Herbs

Encourage children to join you in the garden by planting seeds that provide quick results. Radishes germinate within 2 or 3 days and mature in a few weeks. Marigolds go from seedlings to flowering plants in less than a month. Or, plant a "zoo" of snapdragons, lamb's ears, foxglove, catnip, and toad flax.

• Stop cutting asparagus when the spears become thinner than the diameter of a pencil. After the last cut is made, fertilize the bed. Allow the tops to grow during the summer to store food in the roots for next year's crop.
• It's finally warm enough in coastal areas to plant warm- season vegetables such as tomatoes, sweet corn, cucumbers, squash, eggplant, and peppers and herbs such as basil and cilantro. To get the quickest, most productive crop, plant in well-draining soil in the sunniest spot possible.
• Bacillus thuringiensis is safe to use on cole crops against the imported cabbage worm. Use according to label directions. A spreader-sticker is needed to keep Bt on the leaves.
• You can make whitefly traps by spreading a thin coat of 90 SAE motor oil on yellow poster board squares. Mount the cardboard traps on sticks and place them at blossom height.
• Most herbs need no fertilizer and little water, so water only during prolonged dry spells. Avoid mulching herbs as mulch keeps the soil too moist. If fungus develops on your herbs during wet weather, cut them back to encourage healthy new growth.
• Comfrey improves soil as it grows! Dwarf English comfrey is especially good. The plants have thick, deep roots that are able to penetrate 6 to 10 feet down, breaking up the worst soils. For a very adaptable ground cover that is vigorous in spreading, try St. John's wort or Aaron's Beard. It has striking yellow flowers, will live in dry soil, and needs little or no care.
• Many herb plants thrive in soils with widely varying pH levels. Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) and common oregano (Origanum vulgare) are well adapted to pH levels between 4.5 and 8.7. Horehound (Marrubium vulgare) withstands a range of 4.5 to 8.4 and mint (Mentha spicata) 4.5 to 7.5.
• Chervil matures in six weeks and grows best when planted in light shade. Make successive plantings if you want to harvest it all summer.
• The best time to harvest most herbs is just before flowering, when the leaves contain the maximum essential oils. Cut herbs early on a sunny day.