Experts provide bumper crop of advice

Now that you've got your garden beds all prepped, what in the world do you plant?

Some vegetables are easier to manage than others. We've picked some relatively simple ones here to get you started, though you need to note that squash does quite a bit of sprawling. You've either got to provide plenty of room, give it a big fence or arbor to run up, or check it off the list and pick an alternative.

Here are some tips from the experts to help make your summer garden successful.

• Beans - Don't even think about getting near your bean plants - either the pole or bush varieties - on days when the plants are wet. It's the kiss of death. Or it's a harbinger of disease, at the very least, said master gardener Wally Schmidtke, garden center manager at Pesche's in Des Plaines.

Harvest on a dry day and keep on harvesting, he continued. The plants will keep producing beans as long as they're healthy and are harvested on a regular basis.

Beans also are easiest planted from seed because they grow so fast - remember Jack and the Beanstalk? - and they want soil and air that's a tad warmer so stick to late May, said Sharon Yiesla, horticulturist with the University of Illinois Extension Service in Lake County.

• Carrots - These crunchy carotene-rich favorites like to sink their feet into sandy soil - and without it, growth is a bit stunted. To make sure the soil is to their liking, mix a bag of play sand into the soil in the row where you want to plant carrots, Schmidtke said.

Yiesla said these crunchers also like it chilly, but if the temperatures are still cool mid-May is fine to put in a late crop. Once the seedlings emerge, make sure you pull many of them up to thin them - and leave only one carrot every few inches. Their roots need room to expand as they grow, and they need sufficient access to nutrients and water in the soil. Once late August rolls around, it's time to plant carrots again to take advantage of cooler September days and nights.

• Peppers - All the pretty blossoms on those pepper seedlings you just bought might seem like a promise of great things. Promises can be fleeting: Pluck the flowers. They rob the plant of vigor - and you want it devoting all its energy to developing a great root system once it's transplanted, Schmidtke said.

Stake plants because they can become heavy and tip over. Also beware the brittle branches. Make sure you use scissors or a sharp knife when removing peppers. If you try to simply snap them off a branch you might be unpleasantly surprised with the result.

• Squash - When squash are setting blossoms, it's especially important to make sure the plants get an even supply of water. Definitely don't let them dry out, Schmidtke said. Additionally, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Inspect them early and often for pests and diseases.

• Tomatoes - Water is much more important to tomatoes than many gardeners know. Too little water and the fruit is mealy, too much and parts of the plant start rotting. Consistency and a steady evaporation rate is key, said Susan Grupp, horticulturist with the University of Illinois Extension Service in DuPage.

One big way to assist that process is to mulch the area around the tomato plants with something like straw so that the absorption rate of water into the soil is slowed, as is its evaporation rate into the air. That also helps prevent water from splashing back onto the leaves, which can spread many of the diseases to which tomatoes are prone, like black spot.

When planting tomato seedlings, remove the lower branches and stick the stalk more deeply into the soil, Schmidtke said. The entire stalk will turn into a root, giving the plant a better system for absorbing water.

And tomatoes most definitely require a little help from their friends - most notably stakes and cages, because without them the weight of the fruit and branches will cause plants to flop over and lay in the dirt.