The Weekend to Stay Planted

No one loves a home-grown tomato more than the Market Lady, who is old enough to remember the good old days, “back when a tomato tasted like a tomato.”

That is why yours truly is going to spend this spring weekend up to her elbows in mulch, planting her three Better Boy tomato sets, her three Early Girls (they are smaller but they mature sooner, natch), and a few bell pepper sets, because no one loves a home-grown bell pepper more than etc., etc.

This just happens to be the perfect weekend to make a trip to the nursery and plant your vegetable sets or seeds, says garden expert Jim Hines, author of “Gardening in Ojai.”

Hines will set out some of his personal favorite Better Boys “because they’re large, juicy and they’re disease-resistant.” He talked this week surrounded by a sea of vegetable sets and bedding plants at the Green Thumb nursery in Ventura, where he dispenses gardening advice to all comers.

“Wherever I’ve gone to garden conferences--whether on the East Coast or even in Europe--and I tell people I live in Ventura County, they always say, ‘You have the best climate for growing in the world,’ ” Hines said. “Here, we can garden 365 days a year. In Montana, they may only have 75 days.”

Since spring has officially arrived and all danger of frost is gone, this is also an excellent weekend for putting bedding plants in the soil--the ones that like the warmer days and shorter nights that we will now have.

All types of fruit trees--avocado, citrus, cherimoya, guava and deciduous fruit trees such as apple and peach--may be planted now, too.

Hines says a large plot is not necessary for planting a few vegetables. In fact, there is a trend toward bush melons and bush beans that take up less space “since people have smaller lots today.”

“Even on an apartment balcony you can plant patio tomatoes or dwarf vegetables.”

And don’t just go for the obvious choice or plant exactly what you did last year, Hines advises. The selection and varieties expand every year.

Today one can plant yellow, orange or even pear-shaped miniature tomatoes. Another popular trend is to plant an “heirloom” plant, such as the Brandywine tomato, which Thomas Jefferson grew at Monticello.

Hines likes to plant herbs that do double duty as landscaping and at the dinner table, especially the dozen different thymes and geranium herbs such as peppermint, cinnamon and lemon, which he says look pretty and make excellent tea.

Edible flowers such as lavender, nasturtium, pansies and calendulas please the eye and stomach, he said.

With both eating crops and decorative flowers, Hines is a true believer in staggering crops, or planting vegetables and flowers that come into season or bloom at different times of the year.

In Ventura County, one need never be without ripe vegetables or blooming posies, he says. A good rule of thumb is that most vegetables planted this weekend will probably be ready to pick and eat 45 days from now.

“But people don’t just plant gardens because they want the good quality of eating, they also like the emotional satisfaction,” Hines said.

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Tip of the Week: Hines recommends the plant called gopher purge. “Gophers will avoid the whole area around where one of these is planted,” he says.

The Market Lady, who has Ventura County’s worst gopher problem, bought one for $3.99. We’ll see.