With all the interest in local foods and growing your own, we've been delighted to work with so many first-time gardeners.

Congratulations!

But what a difficult year this has been to get started. About the only good thing that can be said is that after getting through this year, next year's garden should be a piece of cake.

The endless cool, wet weather this year has created the worst possible growing conditions for heat-loving crops including tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, beans, basil and peppers. Add in the late-blight outbreak, and no wonder some of you are getting discouraged.

Your cool season crops should be thriving, though, as long as their soil is well drained. Broccoli, onions, potatoes, lettuce, chard and garlic should all be producing well. Slugs love cool, wet weather, too, so some gardeners are really battling them, and there are still the usual pests to content with: cabbage worms on broccoli and cabbage, and Colorado potato beetles on potatoes. But those are problems every year and are a popular topic of conversation among avid gardeners.

RAISED BEDS
Raised beds are really proving themselves this year, in most cases. Many people have commented that the crops in their raised beds are doing much better than those in their regular garden. The key advantages to raised beds are better drainage and warmer soil.

You can plant a succession of crops in your raised beds. Just a couple of rows or blocks of lettuce planted every couple of weeks will keep your family eating salad all summer long. In a typical summer when the weather gets hot, lettuce turns bitter in midsummer, so you can work in a planting of basil, then replant the space with lettuce once you've harvested the basil.

Everyone should try growing garlic; it's fun and quite easy. Harvest time is here. You want to pull up your plants while the leaves are still about half green, half brown. If you wait too long, the heads fall apart and don't store well. Shake off the soil and lay the plants out in a well-ventilated area to dry. Once the tops are completely dry (this usually takes a few weeks), you can either braid them or cut them off to store the bulbs. Save the largest heads to plant in early October for next year's crop.

LATE-BLIGHT UPDATE
Samples of late blight, that devastating disease of tomatoes and potatoes, continue to come in to our office every day. It has definitely arrived, so no matter where you bought your plants, any garden is susceptible. This disease is a problem because it so quickly jumps from garden to garden.

Please be sure to put any infested plants into plastic bags, tie them shut and then toss them in the trash. Quick action will help slow the spread of this disease.

If your tomatoes and potatoes are fine right now and you're willing to spray to protect them, there are a couple of options. Look for a product that contains chlorothalonil as the active ingredient. This is a pesticide, so follow the label directions exactly. Organic gardeners can try products that contain copper as the active ingredient. The bio-control product sold under the brand name of Serenade has not proven to be effective against late blight in research trials. For more information, visit www.hort.cornell.edu/lateblight, or call our office.

Amy Ivy is executive director of Cornell Cooperative Extension, Clinton County. Office phone numbers: Clinton County 561-7450, Essex County 962-4810, Franklin County 483-7403. Web site: http://www.cce.cornell.edu/ecgardening. E-mail questions to askMG@cornell.edu