Cutworms getting your small plants? The worm eats the small plants as they enjoy the warmth of sunny days just as they seem to break through the soil. One way to stop them is to take toilet tissue rolls (the cardboard inner cylinder), cut into three parts and put each tube around a plant like a collar. Push it into the soil an inch or so to protect the plant even more and to prevent the wind from taking it away. If you see a worm, step on it.

Several years ago Bob Ward owned Bob's Nursery just outside of Sierra Vista. He had a green thumb (actually she has ten green thumbs), Pearl O'Neal, worked for him. He also was in the landscaping business and wasn't able to start his own garden until he made sure everyone he worked for had a good start on theirs. According to Pearly Mae, Bob never started his garden until the monsoon season provided him with free water - sometime in early July. He started his transplants in the greenhouse, hardened them off, and put them in the soil. When you are told that you should have planted your garden in the spring or the old wives' tale that it is far too late, let old Bob teach us that it is just the opposite. If there is one thing we soon learn in gardening it is that whatever works best for us, regardless of what the experts say, we will do, right Bob?

Update on Pearl O'Neal.  As of summer 2015, Pearl is 99 years old and still gardens at her home south of Sierra Vista.