The weather is beautiful and warm.  The perfect thing for all of our gardens.  In my personal opinion, it is time to plant your garden and the flower beds.  All of the greenhouses around are full and blooming, in fact the vegetable plants are getting picked over.  Having a garden, big or small, is a great teaching tool for the kids.  They learn so much about the things that grow and where they come from.  Shelling peas and shucking corn teach you a lot more than where it comes from.  The work involved is a big deal.  That goes right along with the chickens and the eggs we gather.

It looks like the Cherokee Purple Tomato has taken the lead of Better Boys and the Big Boy tomatoes.  They have been the favorites for many years.  I am told that the Cherokee Purple Tomato has a more acid taste.  I like to eat new potatoes and green beans that are coming on pretty soon.  Lasoda red potatoes are still the best and blue lake beans have taken the lead over the Contenders.  There is a lot to be said from listening to your parents and grands about gardening and cooking.  They sure did a good job of it.  If they did not make a good crop they would go hungry in the winter.  

I learned something this week.  Reading the La. Market Bulletin today it had an article of the ways to use an empty milk jug in the garden.  The one that caught my attention was making a duster out of it.  Punch holes in the bottom of the jug and a hole in the top of the jug but leaving the handle.  Put fertilizer or insecticide in the jug and walk slowly around the garden to evenly dust your plants.  Dusters are expensive so that makes a good  purchase. Something also to remember when purchasing a sprayer, don’t buy a really big sprayer that you can’t lift when it is full.  

Enjoy the weather.

(Mitzi Thomas owns Minden Farm & Garden LLC. Watch for her column on Fridays in Webster Parish Journal. Email Mitzi questions at  mitzithomas40@yahoo.com.)