There are only 5 days left to enter your Weird Veggie or Funny Fruit photo in this year’s contest.

Don’t miss out on your chance to win this signed copy of the bestseller“Wicked Plants” by Amy Stewart.

Just send in your digital pix of the odd-ball produce you’ve either grown or found at a farmer’s market. Click here for complete details.

The winning entry, selected by an impartial judge, receives this wonderful addition to any gardener’s library. In fact, I hate to give this book away!

“Wicked Plants” is a fascinating walk through the dark garden of deadly, illegal, painful and destructive plants. What fun Amy must have had researching and writing it.

Amy writes, “I confess that I am enchanted by the plant kingdom’s criminal element. I love a good villain, whether its an enormous specimen of Euphorbia tirucalli…or Datura inoxia…”

Amy explains that dangerous plants don’t just lurk in remote jungles, but they can be found in backyards, too.

Don’t put those gardening gloves away just yet–fall is perfect for planting perennials.

Mother Nature may be slowing down this time of year, but smart gardeners know planting in the fall isn’t only frugal, it gives perennials a head start on spring.

Fall planting can begin in late August and last through late September, as long as the weather holds. Cooler nights are the signal for plants to redirect energy from supporting top growth to building strong root systems.

Besides giving perennials time to get established, there are other advantages to planting in the fall. Crisp fall mornings also make the time spent outside more pleasant for gardeners.

Most perennials can be snatched up at bargain prices and they’ll need less water and care.

Almost all of the perennials remaining in nurseries and garden centers can be planted in fall, except for those that bloom in fall.  Plants to avoid include include zauschneria, salvias, and agastaches, and warm-season ornamental grasses like miscanthus and panicums.

Through the ages, garlic’s antibacterial therapeutic properties have been used to treat stomachaches, headaches and to keep vampires at bay.

One of my favorite foodie sayings was found on the awning of an Italian restaurant: “If you don’t like garlic, go home.”

I’ve latched onto that sentiment and loudly declare it whenever I chop a handful of garlic cloves to make garlic butter, sautee into a spaghetti sauce or bake until golden brown for an appetizer.

This year’s garlic harvest was the best one ever and it’s because I grew both hardneck and softneck varieties.

Hardneck garlic produces a flower stalk called a scape. Hardneck is easy to peel and can be stored for 3-6 months.

Softneck garlic doesn’t produce a flower stalk so all the plant’s energy goes to growing larger bulbs. Softneck garlic is what is usually available at the grocery store and can be stored for up to a year.

The early squirrel gets the tomato.

While I was on my way to the garden to pick tomatoes this morning, an early bird–I mean squirrel–was making a delicious tomato breakfast from one of my Celebrity tomatoes.

I saw this tomato yesterday when it was just turning ripe red, but I decided to give it one more day.

Can squirrels read minds?

This tomato was obviously the low-hanging fruit for the little guy. I can picture him standing on his hind legs, holding onto both sides of this delicacy and chewing away like crazy. He neatly sheared off one complete side of the fruit of my labor.

But it’s okay. I’m not mad. Squirrels are just part of the fun in my backyard habitat.

I actually admire the critter for having such good taste. Celebrity (Lycopersicon esculentum ‘Celebrity’ Hybrid) is an All-America Selections winning tomato from 1984 and it continues to be a reliable performer in my garden year after year. Its disease resistance is one of its most attractive features.

Can you identify this dragonfly?

Yesterday morning was picture perfect in the garden.

The cloudless sky was brilliant blue, the sun was just warming and even though it seemed calm, there was plenty of activity.

I stood quietly and watched bees of all sizes buzzing around the bright purple Bergamot, heard the squirrels running along the fence and caught a glimpse of a dragonfly perched motionless on a dried sunflower stem.

I watched that dragonfly for many minutes and it never moved. The sunflower swayed gently in the breeze, but its wings never flapped, its legs never changed position.

I admired its translucent wings and how they changed color depending on the light. I watched it for many minutes before I moved on, but it lingered still.

Later I consulted my Field Guide to Insects & Spiders and learned a bit more about dragonflies and damselflies (Order Odonata). Because my garden friend’s wings were held outstretched during rest, I think it was a dragonfly. Damselflies extend theirs vertically to the rear.

This edition of Garden Clippings features guest blogger Nancy Mann Jackson, a freelance writer who gardens with her husband and two young sons in Florence, Alabama. She blogs about gardening, harvesting, cooking and preserving with kids in tow at GrowingFoodandKids.com.

When my husband and I moved to north Alabama, we finally had room to plant the vegetable garden we’d always wanted — but we also had a toddler and another baby on the way. So the normal challenges of learning to grow our own food were multiplied, as we had little kids underfoot and on our hips while we planted, weeded, harvested, cooked and preserved our food.

Almost four years later, we’ve figured out that gardening with kids might be challenging, but it’s also educational and just plain fun. Our kids are more aware of where food comes from, more willing to eat veggies they’ve helped grow themselves, and we’ve had lots of good times playing in the dirt together.

Colorado’s Parade of Ponds provides inspiration for creating your own water garden and raises funds for nonprofit organizations in the process.

If you plan to spend time on the Parade of Ponds this weekend, just be prepared for what might happen. I know a couple who  spent $25 to take the bus tour and ended up spending another $10,000 to build  a pond in their backyard.

This is the 11th year for the annual pond tour, sponsored by BR&D Landscape in conjunction with the North American Water Garden Society.  Every August, hundreds of ticket holders leisurely tour private backyards to get ideas for creating their own ponds and water features.

The Colorado Parade of Ponds website provides details about the self-guided tour, as well as ticket information for the bus tour offered by True Pump & Equipment.

Many of the ponds and water gardens will simply take your breath away, but if a full-scale water garden won’t fit in your backyard–or your budget–look for alternatives like pondless water features.

Help celebrate my 100th blog post with a Weird Veggie and Funny Fruit Contest. Here’s my best effort–a cherry tomato that looks like the late comedian Buddy Hackett.

Have you ever grown a potato that looks like Mickey Mouse or a carrot that resembles a hippo? Ever seen an apple shaped like a duck or picked a heart-shaped raspberry?

Welcome to the weird and wonderful world of vegetable and fruit anomalies. Mother Nature’s sense of humor shows through when she tinkers with the growing environment just enough to create odd-shaped fruits and veggies.

So, let’s have a contest! I want to find the strangest looking vegetable or fruit that you’ve either grown in your garden or found at a local farmer’s market.

The winner will receive a signed, hardcover copy of the New York Time’s best seller, “Wicked Plants: A Book of Botanical Atrocities,” by Amy Stewart.

These are prime examples of Paul Robeson tomatoes, a Russian heirloom named for the famous singer, actor and activist.

The deep flavor of a black tomato is not easy to describe. It’s earthy but intense, sweet and tangy, smoky and bright.

My first black tomato was a Black Krim that I bought at a garden club sale a few years ago. Now my garden wouldn’t be complete without several varieties of black tomatoes growing there.

This year in addition to Black Krim, I added black cherry tomatoes and Paul Robeson tomatoes to my garden. I ordered seeds from Tomato Growers Supply in February and started them in the basement in March.

The plants were ready to place in the garden in May, but I waited for the weather to settle down which it never really did, but I planted them the second weekend in June anyway.

This was my first year growing lime basil and I haven’t been disappointed.

Lime basil (Ocimum basilicum americanum) is a refreshingly delicious culinary herb that I grew from seed as another one of my backyard experiments.

I picked up a packet of seeds at the Colorado Garden and Home Show for two reasons: I love basil and I really love basil. The lime was just an added bonus.

I sowed the seeds in early June in a long, narrow and shallow plastic patio planter by sprinkling them on top of the soil, lightly covering them and keeping them moist.

The planter receives direct sun all morning into early afternoon.

I’m delighted with the results. The plants are vigorous and they filled in the entire container. The leaves are small and narrow and have a wonderful lime aroma and citrusy taste.

I’m especially pleased with the plants because they don’t seem to flower as quickly as other varieties of basil, so it’s easier to keep up with them.