We at Orange County Farm Supply Gazette wish you all a very happy — and safe — Independence Day!

Great Recipes for the Fourth of July:

1. Barbeque Sauce
2. Guacamole
3. Fresh Fruit Kabobs
4. Pork and Onion Kabobs
5. Picnic Fruit Punch
6. Fresh Strawberry Pie
7. Summer Watermelon Salsa 
8. Lemon Fruit Dip

Please click here for printable recipes

If you need a versatile plant to solve a garden problem, think vines.

Use them to cover plain, unsightly cinder block or wooden fences. Simply attach plastic coated wire to the surface and plant vines 6 to 10 feet apart and use stretchy green plastic tape to attach the vines to the wire support.

You can also use trellises against empty spaces on walls and buildings and espalier (attach and spread the vine against the trellis) vines against them. Or plant a vine in a container with trellis and espalier it to form a great movable wall or decorative piece for porches and patios. Add trailing perennials around the vine for even more impact.

Vines make beautiful and dramatic coverings on latticed overhangs, arches, and arbors. They can be planted in deep pots and placed against support posts if no ground space is available for planting. Combine 2-3 different vines for blooms year round.

We've got a lot of great vines that bloom well into fall.

Go Vine Crazy!- It's an inexpensive way to bring color and drama to your garden on a whole different level.

1. Transplant New Guinea impatiens plants into larger containers.
2. Purchase tuberous begonias already in bloom.
3. Continue planting summer annuals.
4. Choose and plant hibiscus.
5. Choose and plant succulents.
6. Transplant succulents including cacti and euphorbia.
7. Continue to plant papayas, bananas, and palms.
8. Fill in your vegetable garden with summer crops.
9. Pinch back chrysanthemums.
10. Pick and deadhead roses, but stop disbudding them now.
11. Remove seed pods from fuchsias.
12. Deadhead flowers.
13. Prune impatiens.
14. Prune petunias.
15. Pinch the flowers off of coleus.
16. Cut back hydrangeas.
17. Divide your English primroses, or you can wait until fall.
18. Propagate bromeliads by dividing the offshoots from parent plants.
19. Mow cool-season lawns long.
20. Mow warm-season lawns short.
21. Stop removing runners from strawberries. Let them grow and root in the ground.
22. Continue to prune and train espaliers.
23. Continue to propagate and clean up daylilies.
24. Once Martha Washington geraniums stop blooming, clip off their faded flowers and cut back.
25. Feed fuchsias.
26. Feed water lilies.
27. Feed cymbidiums with a fertilizer high in nitrogen.
28. Fertilize roses.
29. Feed ferns.
30. Fertilize tuberous begonias and impatiens.
31. Feed coleus lightly.
32. Check camellias and azaleas for chlorosis.
33. Fertilize bromeliads.
34. Feed cool-season lawns lightly.
35. Feed warm-season lawns.
36. Water all bougainvilleas well, especially newly planted ones.
37. Water cymbidiums.
38. Water impatiens daily.
39. Water vegetables regularly, do not let tomatoes or cucumbers run dry.
40. Water citrus and avocado trees.

Memorial Day marked the official start of barbeque season! Are your yard and garden in shape for your family and guests? It's still not too late to take some steps that will help your garden look not only presentable, but terrific.

Besides a thorough clean-up removing weeds, piled-up debris and unwanted stuff... make sure all shrubs get a light pruning. Now, survey your garden and focus on empty spaces between shrubs. Fill in these spots with additional shrubs of the same variety or add lilies such as agapanthus or calla lilies. They are full and blooming now and blend in well with most leafy shrubs. Next, add color if space permits; plant borders of summer annuals such as petunias, marigolds, lobelias and salvia.

If you have limited space, pots of annuals placed strategically in dining areas and around the patio or pool make a huge difference, even more so if you feature a focal plant in the center of the pots, such as ornamental theme roses (always in bloom during the summer), ornamental grasses, flax or palms.

Add a soil covering, such as Gardner & Bloome Soil Building Compost or shredded bark, to empty soil spaces. Fertilize monthly and use a good soil amendment such as Gardner & Bloome Harvest Supreme in the ground. Use a potting soil like Gardner & Bloome Blue Ribbon Potting Soil for your containers (never use garden soil in containers). Water regularly and protect your new plants from snails and cutworms with Ortho Bug-Geta Plus Snail, Slug & Insect Killer. For a finishing touch add a garden accessory such as a shepherd's hook with a blooming hanging basket, a metal trellis, or even a decorative plant stake. Now your garden is ready to welcome the 2007 barbeque season.... Bon Appétit!