Raub's Farm Market Offers Gardening Advice

It takes more than a green thumb to make your garden grow. And sometimes it takes a lot more than some tender love and care too.

Kathryn and Jeffrey Raub, owners of Raub's Farm Market on Tatamy Road, know what it takes to make crops grow. And they both have some advice for people who tend to their own little patches of green during the spring, summer and fall. That advice is especially handy when temperatures are blossoming toward triple digits, like they did Thursday and Friday.

"You want to water your garden, use sprays and fungus ides, especially with tomatoes," Jeffrey Raub said. "Around this time, it's all about preventive spraying."

The key, both said, is avoiding your garden getting blight.

"Once plants have blight, it's too late, you can't save them," Jeffrey Raub said.

Kathy suggests that when temperatures are soaring, people should water their gardens once a day, either in the early morning or late in the evening, to avoid the extreme heat. That advice goes with garden work too, she said.

"You should always wear protection," Kathy said. "That means sunscreen, a hat, gloves and to make sure you're drinking enough fluids."

As far as getting your gardens going, Jeffrey suggests that you have a proper bed of soil and seed and not try to get too fancy.

"Stick with what you have to work with," he said. "You might have very little good top soil."

What planters should also know, Kathy said, is that two plants are usually better than one. She says that gardeners need to remember that with pollination from bees and insects, "you never should have just one of something."