Garden Checklist

From the Fresno Bee, May 28:

Garden Gains Worth Repeating—Elinor Teague

In this article, Elinor writes about her own garden, and the trials and errors she has experienced. She said that she repeats the successes and learns from the failures. Here she wanted to share with other gardeners "some successes and tried-and-true recommendations."

She had her first two cherry tomatoes of this season ripen last week, and that they were the earliest ever. She thought that the good health of the transplants were the reason. She bought three new kinds in mid-April, from Fresno State; all of the plants were dark green with sturdy stems.

Matt's Wild Cherry tomato has been prolific, even through the extreme weather changes we had this spring. Her Money Maker and Martian tomato plants are a little slower. Elinor has had the best luck with plant varieties that are considered Mediterranean, as that climate is similar to ours. These are the tomato plants she started indoors in late February—Carmello, Costoluto Genovese and Chianti Rose.

Her second sowing of Romano pole beans are coming up, and the first sowing looks really healthy.

She transplanted Beatrice, Nadia and Rose Bianca Eggplants (all Italian varieties) that she started indoors earlier in the spring.

Raven and Cocozelle zucchinis were direct seed- sown three weeks ago and are already showing their first flowers.

Elinor has her veggies on drip emitters. Her beans, peach tree, California Giant zinnias and sunflowers are watered by soaker hoses.

She feels that her tomatoes don't crack or wilt, and aren't stressed by the heat, because of the city's mandatory watering schedule that allows the soil surface to dry out between waterings and "forces the roots to grow deeper in search of moisture."

Elinor has been gardening organically for four years and has lots of bees, including several kinds of bees, pollinating the flowers in her yard.

She hasn't had any insect problems so far, but says that it's time for the tomato hornworm to show up. She uses Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) as a spray at the first sign of damage. This kills the worms, but doesn't harm the beneficial insects or birds and animals.


Garden Checklist:

Tasks: Mow lawns frequently, removing just 1/3 of the growth each mowing.

Pruning: Trim fast-growing hedges regularly.

Fertilizing: Apply a light feeding to summer flowers and vegetables; water well after each application.

Planting: Fill in bare spots from earlier plantings of annuals; clivia; yarrow (Achillea), lily-of-the-Nile (Agapanthus); bougainvillea, butterfly bush (Buddelia davidii); from seed---beans, cantaloupe.

Things to Ponder: Annual and vegetable plants that are set out now should not be planted in the heat of the day.