Question: I have been raising vegetables and flowers for the past 6 months in my back yard garden. A lot has been by trial and error. I would like to attract good bugs such as lady bugs etc. to my garden. Any tips on what I can plant to attract these good bugs.

Answer: Attracting beneficial bugs to eat the bad bugs is a great way to let nature achieve balance in our gardens. Plants from the "Umbelliferae" family are very attractive to beneficials. Try fennel, dill, Queen Anne's lace, yarrow, parsley, cilantro. Beneficials have short, sucking mouthparts, and appreciate flowers that are easy to land on and easy to get nectar from. Ray or disk-type flowers include asters, coneflowers, cosmos, coreopsis, sunflowers, or chrysanthemums. If you keep in mind that beneficials are looking for fast food, and prefer a soft landing pad, you won't go too far wrong in choosing flowers to attract them to your garden. Good luck!

Question: What is the difference between row covers and landscape fabrics?

Answer: Row covers are intened to be used over plants to protect them from cold or to exclude pests. There are different weights of fabric depending on the need -- heavy fabrics offer the best protection from the cold, while light ones are best for insect control so the plants don't heat up too much underneath. Landscape fabric is intended to be used on the soil surface to block weeds. Although I suppose that, in a pinch, you could swap uses, it's probably best to purchase the correct material in the first place. For example, black landscape fabric used as a row cover might cause the plants underneath to overheat.

If your chive patch is starting to look ragged renovate it by digging out the chives, dividing the clump into 3 or 4 sections, and replanting each clump in slightly acidic soil, amended with compost.

Question: How tall a fence do I need to keep deer out of the garden? What's the best material?

Answer: Deer can and will leap over fences to get at a garden, so you need one at least 8' high to keep them out. Deer are hesitant to jump over a solid fence because they can't see what's on the other side, so if it's appropriate for your situation, consider a solid fence. If you use chainlink rather than wood, you can lay some fencing flat on the ground around the perimeter. This will discourage deer from getting too close too the fence.

To harvest a continuous lettuce crop all summer, each week sow 3 feet of bed with seeds or transplant 6 plants. Continue weekly until the end of the bed and when you harvest the first crop, start another.

Question: I just finished building raised beds for flowers and veggies. What type of soil mix should I use to fill them?

Answer: A mix of about half topsoil and half compost should be fine. First, loosen the native soil and then combine it with the soil and compost add to create a transition between the different soil types.

Mulch roses once they start growing with a 3- to 4-inch thick layer of organic material such as shredded bark. Don't place mulch against the trunk, since that can lead to crown or root rot.