Learn how to use edible flowers in cooking

Many flowers you are now growing for ornamental value can bring lively flavors, colors and textures to your food as well as add a touch of elegance. They'll also improve your dietary needs. Learn from Springs Preserve's Cyndi Dixon and Star Nursery's Frank Rauscher which flowers lend themselves to your dining and how to use them in recipes. The program is at 8:30 a.m. Saturday at the Springs Preserve, 333 S. Valley View Blvd. Call 822-7786 to reserve your seat.

FALL YIELDS HIGH QUALITY VEGETABLES

Vegetable gardening is a year-round hobby for many Las Vegans. They've developed a desire for fresh, nourishing vegetables. Many of us forget autumn is the best time to plant vegetables, which love our fall weather. Join Dixon and me at 10:30 a.m. Sept. 12. We'll show you how to grow high-quality vegetables -- and keep away the critters that like them, too.

This seminar also is at the Springs Preserve. Call 822-7786 for further details.

Here are issues I assisted people with at the preserve.

Fertilize trees: Labor Day is coming, and it's time to fertilize trees and shrubs. If a lawn is under the tree, apply twice the rate. Follow with a deep irrigation to move nutrients into the rooted area. Don't fertilize again until Valentine's Day and Memorial Day, when plants need nutrients most. Later fall feedings cause lush growth, and a damaging frost may kill them.

Exposed roots: Many gardeners cover exposed roots with soil to hide them from view, but it can suffocate the plants. Remove the offending roots and deep water the plant to create a friendlier environment for deeper rooting.

Planting too deep also suffocates plants. Plant so the original soil line of the plant is level with the surrounding soil. If you planted too deep, pull the soil back away from the trunk until you see root tissue coming from the trunk.

White flesh in tomatoes: High temperatures bring this on during the ripening process, along with the plant stressing for water.

Split peach pits: This is brought on when peach trees stress for water during fruit sizing. Peaches gain 75 percent of their size a month before harvest.

Plucking pears: This requires a keen eye and sensitive fingers. When fruit changes from hard to firm (a little give when squeezed) and a slight change from green to yellow, pluck. If left on the tree too long, texture and flavor go bad. Finish ripening them inside and refrigerate until eaten.

Reduce lemon tree height: Do it, but take a couple of years because you don't want to remove too much wood at one time.

Do the "drop crotching" method: follow a limb down to a crotch and remove it. Continue across the tree, working on each limb. When you're through, you'll reduce the tree height about three feet. If you must reduce it more, do it next year and the next until you get the desired height. But wait until October to prune. Exposing interior bark causes sunburning, creating other problems.

Rosemary in poor soil: This durable plant does well in poor soils, providing water drains away. Nothing kills rosemary quicker than roots in soggy soils. It is one of our premier drought-tolerant plants. Spittlebugs are about the only pests that bother it, but ignore them, because they become an excellent source of food for birds.

Prune banks rose: Normally, this beautiful plant doesn't require much pruning, but canes become rampant, so remove as much as you want and it quickly regenerates. Ideally, prune it after bloom next spring.

Yellow leaves: Yellowing leaves with green veins is a stress for iron. Notice the twigs carrying leaves; they'll die back later. Put a special iron such as Kerex, which remains available to plants rather than soil so plants can use it. You won't witness any changes now, as plants are storing nutrients for winter, but they'll green up next spring.

Drooping Italian cypress limbs: If they're drooping and still healthy, you are overwatering. Cypress is a slow-growing plant and overwatering causes excessive growth. Do not remove these limbs. If you do, it will leave gaping holes in the tree. Start below the drooping limbs, working it back into the tree at the same time wrapping it with fishing line to keep it in place. The nylon becomes invisible to the viewer. Finally, stop watering so much and wash the plant down often to rinse away those hiding spider mites.

Linn Mills writes a garden column each Sunday. You can reach him at linn.mills@springspreserve.org or call him at 822-7754.