CHOOSING TOMATO PLANTS

Should you buy tomato plants with or without flowers? For early tomatoes, buy plants with flowers.  Even if the flowers fall off after transplanting, more will soon be produced because the plants are in their reproductive stage.  But these plants may not yield well after the early crop.  Young flowerless plants will fruit later but bear more.

DON'T WATER AT NIGHT

Don't water your lawu LATE in the evening.  The grass will remain wet through the night, encouraging mold and fungus growth.  The best time to water is in the morning or right after the sun goes down, so that the water has a chance to reach the roots instead of evaporating.

PLANT BETWEEN CORN ROWS

Try planting pole beans between corn hills or rows.  The beans will climb the corn and save you the bother of setting poles.

LIGHT HOEING CONTROLS WEEDS

If you cultivate to control annual weeds, don't hoe deeper than 3 inches.  As you cultivate, you'll force all the weed seeds that are in the top 2 inches of soil to germinate.  Once all the seedlings have been killed, few additional weeds will appear, because most seeds buried 2 inches deep or more won't germinate.

RAISE YOUR GARDEN'S OUTPUT

Yes, you can grow more vegetables--and more fruits--in less time and grow them with less effort, in less space, using less fertilizer.  The magic formula:  raised beds.

There are two quick methods for making raised beds:  (1) filled and (2) tilled-and-hilled.  Either should giv eyou yields that are higher than those from conventional row gardening, because the soil warms and dries earlier inthe season so you can plant sooner.  And there is no waste of gardening space or fertilizer on paths.

FILLED BEDS:  All you need is enough soil, compost, and manure to build a bed about 6 inches high.

• Mark off the bed area and water it for several hours.
• Spread the soil and organic amendments in a 6-inch-thick layer, and rake smooth.  Within a week or so, all the grass and weeds under teh bed will die and decompose.

TILLED-AND-HILLED BEDS:  If starting a new garden, till the entire area with a rotary tiller.  If converting an existing garden, loosen the soil with a spade, hoe,or garden fork.

• Use stakes and string to lay out beds measuring 4 feet wide and 5 to 10 feet long, leaving 18-to-24 inch paths between each bed.
• For a richer, more fertile soil, add manure or compost to the bed area.  Till (or spade) the bed areas.
• Shovel the loose soil from the pathways onto the beds.  Or, if your tiller has a hiller attachment, use it to divert the soil from paths or beds.
• Rake the beds smooth so the top of each bed is flat and the sides are gently sloped toward the paths.

When it's time to plant in the beds, divide each bed into blocks and space the plants equidistant from each other instead of in rows.  And ignore the traditional spacings recommended on seed packets.  In most cases, you can plant a little closer without crowding the plants too much.

MAXIMUM VARIETY FROM MINIMUM SPACE

There's a trick to getting more variety out of a small garden plot:  Interplant (plant more than one variety wihtin a block of space).  Especially good combinations are fast-maturing varieites with slow-maturing ones.  Harvest the quick-to-mature varieties before the others need to fill the space.  Try planting:

• lettuce with corn, peas, radishes, or tomatoes.
• beans with carrots, corn, cucumbers, onions, or squash
• radishes with carrots, melons, onions, or peas.

NEAT TRANSPLANTING

To transplant seedlings quickly, use a bulb-planter to make the holes in the garden soil.  Seedlings grown in plugs (individual plastic cells that allow seedlings to pop out easily) fit especially neatly into these holes.

WHAT GROWS UNDER WALNUTS

Many plants are sensitive to a substance found in the roots of walnut trees, and don't grow well if planted near or beneath the trees.  Instead of cutting down the trees, grow these "safe" plants near your walnuts:  snap beans, lima beans, onion,s parsnips, sweet corn, dandelion, black raspberries, grapes, and minds; also, Kentucky bluegrass, white clover, forsythia, narcissus, marigolds, violets, ferns, red cedar, and virutally all native hardwoods.

WATER WISDOM

When planning your garden, remember to group plants by size at maturity and growth speed.  Fast and furious growers (like sweet corn, tomatoes and melon) need a lot of water, while slower growers (like lettuce, beets and carrots) need less.  Grouping plants this way will make irrigation much easier.

EFFICIENT DIGGING

You'll find digging easier if you push the spade into the soil using the area of the foot just in front of the heel--don't use the ball of your foot.  Also, don't throw soil from the spade--slide it off instead.

WHEN WATER IS CRUCIAL

Moisture is absolutely essential for seed germination and seedling growth.  Try to set your young transplants in the garden on cloudy days or in the evening (setting them out in the middle of a bright, hot day may kill them).  And always remember to water your seedlings when you set them out.

AND WHEN TO CUT BACK ON WATER

For some vegetables, there are times when decreasing the amount of water can improve the crop.  Muskmelons, for example, taste better if you start to cut back on water a week to 10 days before harvest.

WHEN TO CUT BACK ON WATER

If you have to ration water during a drought, keep in mind that deeply rooted melons, asparagus, and beets are considered somewhat tolerant of drought-stress.  Tomatoes are semi-tolerant.  Never deny a drink to sensitive celery, strawberries, lettuce, cucumbers, squash and peppers.

WATER BEFORE YOU SOW

When starting seeds indoors, first till your containers with loosely scooped medium.  (Don't pack it down).  Then water the container so that the soil is thoroughly damp BEFORE you plant your seeds.  If you water after planting, you may wash all the seeds over to one corner of the flat or bury them too deeply under the soil.

WE HOPE THESE TIPS HAVE BEEN HELPFUL -- BEST OF LUCK IN YOUR GARDEN -- WISHES FOR AN ABUNDANT HARVEST