Book smarts: Handbook guides gardeners week by week

'Week-by-Week Vegetable Gardener's Handbook'

Authors: Ron and Jennifer Kujawski, a father daughter team out of Massachusetts

Cost: $14.95 paper with partially concealed wire

Description: A illustrated guidebook written in to-do format with emphasis on first and last frost dates versus specific weeks so tips can be adjusted to any region. The book clarifies the timing for all the important garden tasks, from preparing soil to setting out transplants to harvesting ripe veggies.

Note: May 15, on average, is the last day of frost, according to Al Shay, a horticulture professor at Oregon State University.

Lessons learned from the handbook:

• If in the Willamette Valley, we still have 10 weeks before average date of last frost, get ready to plant peas, spinach, carrots, beets, lettuce, green onion and parsnips directly in the soil in the next couple weeks. Sow pepper, eggplant, parsley and fennel inside.
• Save leftover seed packets in a canning jar along with a prepared packet of powdered milk, which absorbs moisture.
• To make sowing tiny seeds easier, mix seeds in very soft gelatin. Then use a squeeze bottle to squeeze the seeds into the planting furrow.