Host Walter Reeves reveals how much you can learn from the back
of a little seed packet on “Gardening in Georgia” June 1 on
Georgia Public Television.

“Gardening in Georgia” is co-produced by GPTV and the University
of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences.
The Saturday show airs at noon and again at 7 p.m.

With the few square inches on the back of a seed packet, Reeves
shows how to understand the recommended hardiness zones, planting
dates and days to maturity.

He defines determinate and indeterminate tomatoes, too. (The
former bear their fruit all at once and are best for canning. The
latter bear fruit all summer and are best for fresh eating.)

Gardening Tools

Reeves takes a look at garden tools, too. He shows how to use
self-propelled tillers, front-tine tillers and handy two-cycle
models.

Some simple tools are helpful in a drought:

• Use plastic cups to measure the water your sprinkler applies.
  Be sure your system irrigates uniformly. And measure the time it
  takes to apply an inch of water.
• A ruler helps check the height of your lawn mower blade. Each
  lawn grass has a preferred mowing height, which helps it conserve
  moisture.
• Heavy fertilizing can make drought damage worse, so be sure
  to calibrate your spreader properly. Consider halving half your
  application rate when drought is in the forecast.

Finally, Hank Bruno, the trails manager at Callaway Gardens,
shows Reeves how to double rhododendrons blooms next year. He
shows how to twist the faded blooms from the branch tips, causing
up to four new buds to grow in that spot. Each new tip can bear a
flower next spring.