DO IT NOW
It's likely that some of your early spring crops, such as leaf lettuce, spinach and radishes, will have turned bitter and bolted by now. That means it's time to get them out of the garden and into the composter. To prevent weeds from filling up the bare garden spots, plug them with annuals, a fall crop of broccoli, cabbage or cauliflower, or mulch well. In early to mid-August, you can try planting some cold-weather vegetables for a fall harvest. Leaf lettuce, spinach and other salad greens as well as radishes, onions and kohlrabi can produce a fall crop, though you'd be wise to fertilize before you seed, and water the seedlings often, especially in hot weather.
ON TV
Want to feel better about your own junky drawers and cluttered closets? Check out the mess on "Clean House," the Style Network reality series in which slobs with slovenly households are coached on cleaning up their act. This season, the show's ninth, Niecy Nash and her "clean team" encounter a woman whose home is overrun with mannequins that she refuses to give up, and a couple who haven't gotten rid of anything since their wedding almost 30 years ago. "Clean House" airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m.
CONTEST OF THE WEEK
You can win a $15,000 room makeover and be on DIY Network's "Sweat Equity" with the ScotchBlue & You Renovation Rescue Crew Contest. To enter, identify a room in your house that needs a makeover and submit a short essay with three photos or a 3-minute video. Visit www.ScotchBlueandYou.com for details and to enter. No hurry, though. Entries will be accepted through Dec. 29.
NEXT WEEK
Joan Riebel and a few of her St. Paul neighbors transformed a vacant city-owned lot into a shared garden. As soon as she got the chance, Riebel bought the lot herself so that she and her neighbors would always have a place to grow food and build community.
CONNIE NELSON, KIM PALMER
