Our southern gardens are once again in transition. The first transition was when danger of frost passed and we began to plant warm-season veggies and flowers. Now the weather is moving from warm to hot. That means the cool-season plantings such as broccoli are almost all done and wimpier warm-season flowers such as Dianthus and petunias will soon look like they were blasted with a welding torch.

Tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, beans, and other mild-weather veggies are in their prime right now. They're ripening fast and keeping us picking every day to stay ahead of their feverish pace. But, when the summer temperatures rise a bit further, tomatoes will stop setting fruit (except perhaps for the cherry types), and even squash, cucumbers, and beans will do little in the way of producing. It'll be time to pull them out. By fall, they will be the stars again. In the mean time, I can't bear looking at a bear patch of dirt all summer, so I'm planting some summer-tough veggies and flowers in my garden.

Some of my favorite heat-loving vegetables include okra, sweet potato, vegetable amaranth, Malabar greens, water spinach, winter squash (including pumpkin), and southern peas. All these can be planted now if you haven t done so already.

Cool-season flower beds are replaced with heat-tolerant scaevola, Zinnia angustifolia, Blackfoot daisy, Lantana, Pentas, Esperanza, hyacinth bean, cigar plant, Gomphrena, Mexican petunia, and selected salvias. These plants laugh at the sultry summer sauna as long as we provide them a little water to keep them going.

This is also the season to keep that mulch replenished and make sure the plants as well as ourselves get a good drink of water to keep us perked up and healthy. With a little work now, you can reap beautiful dividends all summer long.