Ok, now your summer vegetables have been growing for a while. Here are some tips about when to harvest and some recipes to help you further enjoy your summer harvest. We will profile different vegetables and new recipes over the next several weeks.

Tomatoes: For the best taste, harvest tomatoes when they are fully colored and slightly soft to touch. Gently twist and pull from the vine. If your plant looks like it may be over-producing, you can also harvest some as they start to ripen and let them finish indoors. If you like fried green tomatoes, harvest as they reach full size (or just as the first color change begins, if you like them a bit less tart).

Grilled Tomatoes

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Number of servings: 4
Cups of fruits and vegetables per person: 0.5

Ingredients:

4 ripe tomatoes
1 T. fresh oregano or 1 t. dried
1 t. lemon pepper

Directions:

Slice tomatoes in half, lengthwise. Prepare coals. Cover grill grid with foil. Place tomatoes on foil and sprinkle with oregano and lemon pepper. Grill tomatoes with cut side down, over hot coals for about 4–5 minutes.

Skillet Zucchini with Chopped Tomatoes

Preparation time: 10 minutes
Number of servings: 4
Cups of fruits and vegetables per person: 1.0

Ingredients:

1 t. whipped light butter
1 cup chopped onion
4 small (6-in/15cm) zucchini, thinly sliced
2 medium tomato, chopped
Freshly ground pepper

Directions:

In a large nonstick skillet, melt margarine over medium heat; add onions and cook, stirring until softened. Add zucchini and cook for 2 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook for 3 to 5 minutes or until zucchini is tender-crisp. Season to taste with pepper.

Summer Squash/Zucchini: Pick young and check often. The skins should be tender enough to poke your fingernail through.

Pasta Primavera

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Number of servings: 2
Cups of fruits and vegetables per person: 3.0

Ingredients:

1 cup broccoli florets
1 cup sliced carrots
1 cup sliced zucchini
1 cup macaroni or rotini pasta
1 T. flour (for sauce)
1 T. margarine (for sauce)
1 cup skim milk (for sauce)
1/4 t. dried basil (for sauce)
1/8 t. black pepper (for sauce)
2 T. Parmesan cheese (for sauce)

Directions:

Steam vegetables until crisp-tender, and cook macaroni according to package directions. In a small saucepan, melt margarine and blend in flour. Gradually stir in milk and seasoning. (Do not add cheese at this time.) Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sauce thickens. Remove from heat and blend in cheese. Pour over hot vegetables. Add macaroni and mix together.

These recipes are from the website for the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. You can get the nutritional facts and diabetic exchange information from the website for each recipe. The website is http://apps.nccd.cdc.gov/dnparecipe/recipesearch.aspx

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Produce for Better Health Foundation (PBH) are leading this initiative and are in partnership with other health organizations. The goal is to achieve increased daily consumption of fruits and vegetables.

For more information on the Fruits and Veggies — More Matters health initiative, brand and logo, please visit PBH at: www.fruitsandveggiesmorematters.org. You will also find activities and tips for getting children involved, as well as more recipes.

Now that the summer heat is coming on, you should fortify your plants with ZEBA QUENCH to ensure they survive your long weekends away. Potted plants that are the first to wilt, and even those in the ground, can use a little extra help getting access to the moisture they crave.

ZEBA QUENCH is a second-generation super absorbent polymer in the form of small granules, similar in size and appearance to fertilizer. When exposed to water it forms an odorless hydrogel that becomes a reservoir for the plant. Like a sponge, ZEBA can absorb and release water over and over again, providing a continuous water supply to the plant as needed, without causing the soil to become waterlogged.

ZEBA SINGLES are ‘tea bags’ containing a combination of the polymer with a slow-release organic fertilizer and beneficial microbes to maximize the health and growth of the plant. Just throw some in each pot or hole in the ground so your plants can cruise through the heat waves in good shape.

Whether in granular form or in “tea bags”, ZEBA will protect your plant through the hot weather and then biodegrade, leaving no harmful residues. So relax and enjoy your summer.

It’s a small world and it’s getting smaller every day. Need proof? It used to be that a visit to a tropical paradise would require a travel agent, a passport, and a winning lottery ticket. The thought of lush palms, exotic vines of passion flower, and the scent of gardenias wafting in the early evening breeze was a dream shared by many but realized only by the privileged few. All that has changed. Today’s gardeners are creating lush tropical paradises right in their own backyards! Whether you live in San Francisco, Piedmont, Oakland, Berkeley or the heart of Lamorinda, you have access to a wide palette of tropical plants.

Want to add more sizzle to your gardens? Then turn up the heat with plants in bold and spicy shades. Tropical annuals such as tithonia (Mexican sunflower) or portulaca add healthy doses of color to the landscape, and these hot-blooded hombres can really take the heat. Containing your passion might be tough, but consider using urns, planters, and terra cotta pots to act as summer homes for zone 10 favorites, such as hibiscus, mandevilla, and the exotic leaves of coleus. This way you can move these summer favorites to where the sun is-literally! With containers, any gardener can create a tropical retreat, whatever his or her climate. Most of these plants can also be overwintered indoors, making those cold winters a bit more bearable.

It won’t take much to transform your patio, sunroom, or deck into an island-inspired paradise. Start with the basics—palms. They really set the stage. Next, add vines. Brilliant magenta bougainvillea, exotic jasmine, and trumpet-shaped mandevilla can all be grown in large planters and supplemented with annual geraniums, pentas, and verbenas. Complete the look with combination planters that feature free-flowering roses, Supertunias, and New Guinea impatiens.

Since we are thinking tropical, don’t forget the alluring sound of water. A simple tabletop water feature or an elegant fountain can create just the right mood. Throw in a few teak benches or Adirondack chairs, and you’ll feel as if you arrived at some exotic port of call.

Creating your own tropical paradise has never been easier. Our staff is always ready to guide you and to provide more ideas. You’ve got the inspiration…now let’s get growing!

Summer Solstice, June 21, marks the longest day of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. The word "solstice" is from Latin meaning "sun stands still" (sol=sun, sistit=stands). Since all days are the same length (24 hours), what this means is that on this day we have the longest time between sunrise and sunset and the shortest time between the sunset and sunrise.

The ancient monument Stonehenge in England was built to mark an annual calendar. One of the stones in particular, the heelstone, was aligned to demonstrate this day, the longest day, as the beginning of their new year.

What does this all really mean? It's the first day of SUMMER! The beginning of dog days, warm weather, sunshine, and most important, lots of flower-growing time for all of us. Hooray!

Do your last thinning on deciduous fruit trees after June drop, nature's way of getting rid of an overload of fruit. It may occur any time between early May and July but is most likely to happen in June. One day you visit your apple, peach or apricot tree and find a circle of immature fruit lying on the ground under the branches. You may worry if you are new to fruit trees, but don't panic! It's a natural part of the cycle. These trees often set more than double the amount of fruit they could possibly ripen properly, so they simply drop off part of it.

If you thinned out fruit on your trees earlier, you enabled the remaining fruit to grow larger and thus will have less fruit dropping now. Nevertheless, you may need to remove even more fruit than naturally drops in order to space your crop evenly down the branches. Inspect other deciduous fruit trees that are less subject to June drop (plums, for instance) and thin out their fruits also.

Clean up any fallen fruit under the tree before it has a chance to rot and spread disease. If it's healthy, chop it and add it to your compost pile (cover it with earth to keep away flies and rodents). Also water your deciduous fruit trees deeply in June and July.

1. This flower is said to have represented the Roman gladiators.
2. In early times a mixture of powdered corms and goat’s milk was a favorite remedy for colic.
3. Also, in early times the stem base was used as a poultice and for drawing out thorns and splinters.