Cabbage and beets made their debut at the DeKalb Farmers Market in Smithville behind Ace Hardware last week. The beets went quick, though, so get there early if you want to snag a bunch. Mounds of fresh lettuce, green onions, kale, and fresh herbs make for stunning salads. Baked goods, jams and jellies, barbecue, artisan crafts, flower arrangements, and handmade soaps are always in season. Fill up your garden with vegetable and herb plants. Try out some garlic scapes, the immature flowering stalk of hardneck garlic varieties. They'll only be around for a week or two!
This Saturday, May 24, Justin Potter Library is sponsoring a celebration of the Arts, Herbs, and Crafts in conjunction with the farmers market and Community Center.
Start your Saturday early with an art demonstration by local paper artist, Claudia Lee, at 8:00am.
Help keep our scenic county beautiful and clean by participating in the DeKalb County Clean Up. Stop by the farmers market pavilion between 9-10 a.m. to pick up your trash bags, gloves, and bottled water. Pose in the volunteer group picture at 9:30 a.m.
At 11 a.m., you can enjoy a vegetable and herb demonstration and learn how to use the fresh greens that are available right now.
After lunch, come on down to the Community Center and support the county's blossoming young artists at the Youth Art Exhibit, which starts at 1 p.m.
Fellow foragers know that summer is definitely en route, as the watercress is flowered out and spicy hot. Arugula, mustards, and Asian greens have all bolted at our farm. We're enjoying the flowers in salads and stir fry.
So far, no imported cabbage moth scourge yet. Keep an eye on your cabbage and broccoli for those green worms. Squish them-or feed them to chickens-when you see them, then peek under the leaves for their soft yellow eggs. However, be sure you're not looking at lady beetle eggs, which are similar, but larger, and generally laid in clusters. A local farmer suggested sprinkling flour on the leaves during a heavy worm infestation.
If you're seeing tiny holes in your eggplants or potatoes, it's probably flea beetles. A fellow gardener told me he uses hardwood ashes directly on the leaves and has never had a problem with them. We've had dozens of eggplants laid to waste by flea beetles in previous years. We tried diatomaceous earth, soapy hot pepper sprays, and an organic pesticide, all with absolutely no results. Last year we grew eggplants in pots up on our deck, and that worked great.
If you've grown tomatoes here, you've probably had the experience of watching the bottom leaves get yellow spots, followed by brown spots that spread upwards and “fire up” the plants. That's early blight, caused by a soil fungus. 
When you plant is the time to start with early blight prevention. As blight lives in the soil, dirt splashing onto your tomato leaves is bad news, so mulching is important. A cover crop of rye and vetch, cut just before flowering and left on the ground will keep the dirt off your leaves and feed the soil and the plants. A neighbor has great success putting down a layer of brown paper he gets on rolls. You could use cardboard and newspaper. We mulch with old hay and goat bedding. Just be sure the mulch doesn't touch the stem, which could invite mold issues.
Avoid watering from overhead, since splashing water helps spread the fungus. Use drip irrigation or water directly at the root zone.
Staking or trellising your tomatoes to keep them off the ground will help, as well. If you're dedicated, trimming the leaves off the bottom several inches of the stem is another early blight preventive measure. I read that high humidity, morning mists, and afternoon rains that leave the leaves wet all night will spread blight, too. I'm not sure what to do about that, other than to leave the South, which I have no interest in doing.