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Gardening In The Low Desert, February 2000

© Pat Kolb

After our warm winter, it certainly seems like spring is here.

You can still start seeds of warm weather vegetables, such as tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, melons, squash, and eggplants for transplanting after Mar. 8, the normal date at which there will be no more frosts. Try some heirloom seeds as well as disease resistant hybrids for great variety. You can plant earlier if you like to take a chance or have a very warm, protected place for them.

Consider companion planting, a great idea because they help each other ward off bugs and diseases and they enhance flavor development and production.

Lettuce: radishes

Eggplant: Lavender, Marigold, Tansy, Worm wood, Thyme, Catnip

Tomatoes: basil (dislikes rue), sage, mint, asparagus, peas, pot marigolds, nasturtium, chamomile, borage (this has a beautiful blue flower)

Beans: petunias, rosemary, summer savory

Cabbage: chamomile, dill (dislikes carrots and caraway), hyssop (dislikes radishes), mint, sage (dislikes cucumbers), southernwood, thyme, rosemary

Carrots: chives, flax, sage (dislikes cucumbers), rosemary

Curcurbits: nasturtium

Grapes: hyssop

Onion: chamomile

Potatoes: dead nettle, flax, horseradish

Radishes: squash, cucumber, peas, lettuce, nasturtium, tea leaves, chervil

Squash: borage

Strawberries: borage

Raspberries: rue (dislikes sweet basil), tansy, garlic

Roses: feverfew, garlic, tansy, penneyroyal, rue (dislikes sweet basil)

Fruit trees: tansy, nasturtium

Other hints:

Sunflowers are suggested as a companion for cucumbers and an antagonist of potatoes.

Marigolds: plant throughout the garden for help with Mexican Bean Beetle, nematodes, others

Caraway: plant throughout the garden to loosen the soil. Doesn't like dill.

Mole Plant: helps control moles and mice.

Coriander helps control aphids.

Most plants dislike fennel.

Henbit is a general insect repellent.

Lavender: combine with southernwood, wormwood and rosemary in an anti-moth sachet

Pyrethrums: use dried flower heads as a general insect repellent.

Wormwood: plant as a border to keep animals out of the garden.

Yarrow: plant near aromatic herbs to enhance production of essential oils.

Now is the time to finish pruning all deciduous trees, shrubs, shade and desert trees, and roses - as soon as possible. Deciduous trees and shrubs should be fed with nitrogen. For shrubs and 2 year old trees, ½ cup of ammonium sulfate; for older trees, 1 cup per inch of trunk diameter, and water well. Maintain soil moisture by watering every 10 days to three weeks, depending on rainfall.

Citrus trees should not be pruned until warmer weather when new growth begins but they should be fertilized this month. Use ½ cup of ammonium sulfate for 2 year old trees; for older trees, approximately 5 pounds of ammonium sulfate, 3 pounds of ammonium nitrate, or 6 1/2 pounds of calcium nitrate. Half should be applied now and half in May, spread out to the drip line of trees and watered in well (1 pound equals about 2 cups).

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