Planting Between Corn Rows

It is a traditional Native American practice to plant corn, squash (including pumpkins), and beans together. The pumpkin vines cover the soil to make a living mulch, maintaining moisture and smothering weeds, and beans supply nitrogen to both other crops, and climb the cornstalks for support.

Both corn and pumpkins are heavy feeders, so you may want to add extra compost and/or a slow-release fertilizer at planting time.

Cage Tomatoes

Vigorous tomato varieties need to be supported to keep plants and fruit off the ground. For the simplest support construct a 6-foot-high, 3-foot-diameter cylindrical wire cage around the plants and anchor it to the ground.

Thin Fruits

Deciduous fruits trees such as peaches, apricots, plums and cherries that have flowered and set fruit need to have some of those fruits removed or thinned. Many fruits trees will set more fruits than they can mature. By thinning some fruits now, you'll get larger and tastier mature fruits later. Thin these fruits to about 4 to 6 inches apart on the branch as soon as the fruits are as large as a quarter.

Control Citrus Thrips

Feeding by thrips cause curled leaves on your citrus trees. To keep them in check hang yellow sticky traps on the trees to trap the thrips and spray trees with insecticidal soap to kill them.