An artichoke (Cynara scolymus or C. cardunculus) is a giant thistle which becomes a beautiful flower. Well, it could become a beautiful flower - if we didn't we pick it as a flower bud and eat it as a vegetable.

Artichokes, native to the Mediterranean region, were later introduced to Southern Europe and Asia. The artichoke has dramatic and sculptured gray green foliage that is very attractive in your vegetable garden. In fact, this vegetable is beautiful in your ornamental garden, too!

An artichoke’s overall form is almost like a fountain and needs up to 4 feet of space for full growth. It likes full sun, cooler temperatures and moist soil. If you live in a very hot zone, plant it in the shade. Mulch under the plant to help maintain the moisture that it loves.

At planting time, plant dormant roots or young plants with the root shoots just above the soil level and then mulch. Water at least once a week, keeping the root system moist.

Aphids, snails, slugs, and earwigs tend to be the artichoke “pest of the day.” Blast the aphids and earwigs off with water. We recommend Corry's Slug and Snail Bait for the snails and slugs.

The best time to harvest your artichokes is once the edible flower buds are 2-4 inches in diameter. Cut off the bud, including 1.5 inches of stem with the bud. At the end of the season, cut back the old bearing stems/foliage to near ground level and mulch around the remaining plant. Don’t forget to give your artichokes a well-balanced fertilizer such as Whitney Farms Tomato and Vegetable Fertilizer.

Peppers (Capiscum frutescens) are in the same group as the potato and tomato family (Solanaceae) which is also called Nightshade. The pepper is another one of our favorite vegetables that are natives of South America. It has been a part of the human diet in the Americas for thousands of years.

A bushy annual, the plant grows to from 1-4 feet tall and likes full sun but will tolerate part shade too. Regular water is necessary, along with a long, warm growing season to produce the most fruit. If your growing season is cool or short, try techniques that will increase the warmth around your plants such as clear plastic mulch. Steve Goto of Goto Nursery (heirloom tomatoes and peppers) recommends mixing an acid plant (azalea, camellia, gardenia) planting mix with your native soil at planting time.

There are so many kinds of peppers--what is your fancy? They range from the classic bell peppers that can be green, red, yellow, orange or buff to Hot Hot Hot!

There are peppers for salads, peppers for stuffing, peppers for spices, peppers for pickling…on and on and on.

Hotness scales related to peppers reveal the amount of capsaicin, which is the source of that hotness, and truly can be scientifically measured. Bell peppers are rated at 0 SHU (SHU=measure of hotness), green chilies are 1500 SHU, jalapenos 3000-6000SHU and habaneros 300000 SHU. How could one even chew one tidbit of something that hot!! Great care must be taken when trying out a new, hot chile pepper.

FYI, the camp song above is referring to Pepper Pot Soup. There are many variations on this recipe theme. Here’s one to try with your home grown peppers!

The Caribbean
• Pepper Pot
• 2 chickens, cut up in pieces (2-1/2 pounds each)
• 1 pig's foot
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 3 pounds pork tenderloin, cut into bite-size pieces
• 1/2 cup cassareep*
• 1 lg. onion, finely chopped
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 2 chile peppers, seeded, diced
• 1 2-inch piece stick cinnamon
• 4 whole cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

Place the chicken pieces and pig's foot in a large stew pot and pour water in to cover. Add salt. Bring to a boil and skim scum. Cover partially and simmer for 1 hour.

Remove as much fat as possible from surface of water. Add pork, cassareep, onion, brown sugar, chiles, cinnamon, cloves, and thyme. Bring to a boil and simmer, partially covered, for another hour. Remove the cloves and cinnamon and discard. Stir in the vinegar.

*Used primarily in West Indian cookery, cassareep is a bittersweet condiment made by cooking the juice of bitter cassava with brown sugar and spices until it reduces to a syrup. Bottled cassareep can be found in Caribbean markets.

The Unwanted Trio: Powdery mildew, rust, and blackspot. For rose growers, these three characters are hard for us to avoid. Morning and evening air moisture will get us every time, no matter how careful we are about giving our plants the best cultural environment that we can. Oh sure, there are others! But we'll start with these three guys.

Powdery mildew appears as a superficial white or gray powdery substance over the surface of leaves, stems, flowers, or fruit of affected plants. These patches may enlarge until they cover the entire leaf on one or both sides. Young foliage and shoots may be particularly susceptible. Leaf curling and twisting may also occur with this fungus. Severe powdery mildew infection will result in yellowed leaves, dried and brown leaves, and disfigured shoots and flowers. Although it usually is not a fatal disease, powdery mildew may hasten plant defoliation and the infected plant may become extremely unsightly. On roses, uncontrolled powdery mildew will prevent normal flowering on highly susceptible cultivars.

Some powdery mildew, especially those on roses, is favored by high humidity. This can happen in our gardens when we have plant overcrowding; shading will keep plants cool and promote higher humidity. These conditions are highly conducive to powdery mildew development.

Rust is another fungus presenting problems in our gardens. It first appears on the undersides of leaves and other plant parts as orange powdery "pustules." As these pustules develop, they become visible on the upper leaf surfaces as orange brown spots. Rust can develop when temperatures are 65 to 70 F, and moisture is continuous for two to three hours.

It is very important to remove and destroy the infected foliage containing rust. Wear gloves that can be washed afterwards and clean any tools used in the removal. This fungus is easy to spread. That is why it is important to also clean up any foliage that has fallen to the ground under the infected plant. Replace any mulch present with new mulch. Don't try to "wash" the rust away from the foliage! This will only help it to spread further in your garden.

Blackspot , also a fungus, appears like its name. It also develops during warm but wet weather. Unfortunately, it can overwinter in the leaf buds and canes or on fallen leaves not cleared away from your roses. Lots of sun, good air circulation and healthy soil will increase your rose plant resistance capabilities. As with rust, it is very important to remove and clean up infected foliage. Remember to clean your tools between cutting on infected plants.

Before using fungicides you should attempt to limit powdery mildew and rust by following good cultural practices.

• Purchase only top-quality, disease-free plants of resistant cultivars and species--we sell only the best.
• Prune out diseased terminals of woody plants, such as rose during the normal pruning period. All dead wood should be removed. Remove from the surrounding soil all dead leaves that might harbor the fungus.
• Keep plants healthy. Plant where the plants will obtain a minimum of 6 hours of sunlight daily (especially roses), space for good air circulation.
• Water thoroughly without over-watering. Don’t use overhead watering/sprinklers, which wet the foliage. Don’t water in the late afternoon or evening when the foliage will not have time to dry.

Fungicides may become necessary to achieve acceptable control. For best results with fungicides, spray programs must begin as soon as mildews are detected. Ask one of us which of the fungicide products are best suited for your needs. There is a range of products available on our shelves.

Scales are bark, branch, leaf, stem, and fruit pests. Hmm, that's just about everything but the flower! These little pests look like crusty or brown rounded bumps on your plants. They are like barnacles. Unless they have accumulated in numbers, they may be entirely missed.

Scales are “suckers” like aphids and mealybugs. They are less mobile than the latter, however, and spend much of their lives in one spot. Their excrement is like the honeydew of aphids, and that sugary substance is an excellent growth medium for black sooty mold. If your plant has sooty mold, chances are you have an infestation.

Damage to your plant from scales is minimal in the long run (unless there is a huge infestation). But they are unattractive to your plant.

You can flick them off with your thumbnail, or alternatively, you can clean your plant with strong blasts of water and knock these “stem potatoes” right off. Because they have a sucking mouthpart and are generally immobile, they won't be back anytime soon. And, if they had that mouthpart stuck into your plant at the time of detachment, it will break off, and the little brown scale can no longer eat.

Scales have natural predators too. Lacewing larvae, predaceous beetles and microscopic parasitic wasps all control the scale population. The beneficial wasp pierces the hard shell and lays eggs within the scale – thus the name parasitic. If you see a scale with a hole on its shell, it has already been attacked by one of these wasps. This parasitic outcome is also true for aphids.

Word to the wise gardener: keep your plants healthy with correct watering, fertilizers and mulch. A healthy plant can better combat any annoying insect.