*

Become a fan-atic- use ceiling fans instead of your air conditioning
or try out one of Wallaces decorative room fans

*

Keep that stove/oven turned off.
Get out in the garden to harvest veggies and herbs for fresh eating.

*

Drink lots of cold water (from a pitcher- not plastic bottles)

*

Hang Low... In your house- hang out in your basement
or first floor where cooler air prevails

One of the most common mistakes made by beginning vegetable gardeners is harvesting the crop at the wrong time. Since ripeness varies according to planting time, the weather in any given year, the variety of the particular vegetable planted, and many other things, one can't just say, "Harvest this vegetable on July 21st." So we've gotten together a general guide for harvesting many commonly-grown vegetables.

We thought of restricting it to vegetables that grow easily here, or to summer harvest only--but greenhouse-growing is becoming more popular so we decided to do the long list.

By Tamara Galbraith

Summer's in full swing, and your previously glorious flowers are starting to look a little ragged around the edges.

Many plants will benefit - and even rebloom - after a mid-summer session of "deadheading," that is, removing spent flowers and/or stems to promote new growth.

Here's a quick guide of deadheading techniques for different types of flowers:

Pinch off individual dead flowers on: balloonflower, bellflower, daylily, delphinium, foxglove, hibiscus, hollyhock. (Also included: some irises that will rebloom in the fall, depending on the variety.)

Do an overall snip of dead blooms (about 2" below the flower) on: blanketflower, columbines, globe thistle, goldenrod, geranium, Jacob's ladder, salvia, coreopsis/tickseed.

Cut the entire spent flower stem off to either a sideshoot or to the plant's base on: baby's breath, bleeding heart, cardinal flower, catmint, coral bells, foamflower, gaura, Jupiter's beard, lavender, lupine, mullein, painted daisy, pincushion flower, coneflower, Shasta daisy, speedwell, spiderwort, Stoke's aster.

Japanese beetles have been spotted in our nursery and in many of our customer's landscapes. Check on your favorite landscape plants and spray to protect them. Wallace's recommends any of the following products Bonide Japanese Beetle Killer, Sevin, or the new Captain Jack's Dead Bug Brew.