Garden Question

My Grandmother used to plant marigolds between her tomato plants.Back then they dusted the plants with"Black Molly"too.It had DDT in it! :woohoo: She lived to 99. Not sure about the answer to your question.You can get a TON of info from your local extension service and county agent.Should be under USDA.

i have asparugus behing the tomatoes and mint nearby, tomatoes are supposed to ward off asparagus beetles (poison works better :laugh:) have mint nearby, nothing hurts mint except rum and bourbon.
lifted this from the net

TOMATOES: Tomato allies are many: asparagus, basil, bean, carrots, celery, chive, cucumber, garlic, head lettuce, marigold, mint, nasturtium, onion, parsley, pea, pepper, marigold, pot marigold and sow thistle. One drawback with tomatoes and carrots: tomato plants can stunt the growth of your carrots but the carrots will still be of good flavor. Basil repels flies and mosquitoes, improves growth and flavor. Bee balm, chives and mint improve health and flavor. Borage deters tomato worm, improves growth and flavor. Dill, until mature, improves growth and health, mature dill retards tomato growth. Enemies: corn and tomato are attacked by the same worm. Kohlrabi stunts tomato growth. Keep potatoes and tomatoes apart as they both can get early and late blight contaminating each other. Keep apricot, dill, fennel, cabbage and cauliflower away from them. Don't plant them under walnut trees as they will get walnut wilt: a disease that attacks tomatoes growing underneath walnut trees.

Hey, Randy, I'm an MG as well (in Island County, WA). Just got done teaching a 'cooking with herbs' class yesterday at our annual Whidbey Gardening Workshop. My feet still hurt for all the prep, set up, etc. Three or four days of straight standing and walking (the standing is the worst for me) is a killer!

We do not. We have to take 10 hours of advanced CE every year. Our entire program is in flux right now. We have a new director (for our county) and he's not a people person. Has alienated a huge percentage of the people and morale is down. This year they have really cracked down on making sure that people do all their hours, including CE and they have cracked down on the classes that are eligible.

So you do bees? I sometimes attend our local group, Whidbees. I had wanted to get some hives, then read up on it for about a year and decided with all the problems bees are having, it was too much work and expense for such an iffy thing. So I went the mason bee route. Then we moved onto a property with 3 abandoned hives. So I'm still keeping it as an option and attend classes and meetings when I can.

I continue to do the mason bees every year but have never been real successful at getting them to come back without me having to buy new bees every year. At $25 - $30 a tube, it's a bit pricey. I usually wait til it's late in the season and the buyer at my local store is a good friend and she sells me their leftovers at half off.

In the meantime, the abandoned hives are still in the yard. The first year we lived here, I turned one of them into a planter. They all are sort of falling apart now. The plum orchard they sit under is desperately in need of pruning and the whole area is sort of abandoned and wild. I would like to get it back under control someday.