Fall tomato transplants for gardeners in southern regions will be available this year from the Natural Gardening Company. Here are the details, from the company’s news release:

“In response to many customer requests for fall tomato transplants, the Natural Gardening Company will begin offering certified organic tomato transplants the week of Aug. 16, 2009.

These transplants will cater to the needs of gardeners in the most southern part of the United States. While most of the nation’s gardeners will be in the midst of the late summer/early fall harvest by the middle of August, southern gardeners, especially those in the Gulf States, have a fall planting season. Because this season is on a different schedule than the rest of the nation, sources of supply for tomato transplants are scarce.

Choosing from among its popular varieties, the Natural Gardening Company will offer a dozen varieties of tomato transplants, including early varieties, main crop varieties, cherry tomatoes and plum tomatoes. The list includes the following:

• Big Beef
• Celebrity
• Costoluto Genovese
• Estiva
• Juliet
• Ramapo, the New Jersey Tomato
• San Marzano
• Stupice
• Sugar Snack
• Sun Gold
• Sun Sugar
• Zapotec

Plants are sold in groups of six, 12, 18 or additional multiples of six. Customers may mix varieties in any quantity as long as the total is divisible by six. The plants are delivered in 3-inch pots, ready to plant. Six tomato plants plus shipping costs $29.65. A dozen tomato plants plus shipping costs $49.95.

Gardeners may order the tomato seedlings through the Natural Gardening Company website, or by calling 707-766-9303.

Pumpkins with warts look pretty weird, and in America, and especially at Halloween, weird often sells well. So the Siegers seed company is attempting to patent and “own” all pumpkins with warts, even though pumpkins with warts have been grown by gardeners for centuries. As heirloom vegetable expert Will Weaver put it, “This is like trying to patent all trees with twisted limbs.” But Siegers is claiming they have somehow “invented” warty pumpkins, and threatening to sue other companies if they try to sell seeds of warty pumpkins if the patent is granted. The ETC group has sounded the alarm and called on the U.S. Patent Office to “reject all 25 claims of the patent application on warted pumpkins.”

Warty pumpkins are clearly not a new invention. Patenting a “new and improved” variety is one thing, but Siegers is attempting to claim ownership of all warty pumpkins.

Read more in the GRIT blog by Mother Earth News contributing editor (and plant geneticist) Hank Will: Siegers Attempts to Patent Pumpkin History and Siegers Seed Co. Threatens Action Over Warty Pumpkins.

Gardeners and farmers have seen this kind of attempt to abuse the patent process before. Maybe an outpouring of objections, directed to the folks at Siegers and to the patent office will convince them to withdraw their patent application.

Sometimes it can be quite difficult to locate a company that sells the particular variety of beans you've been wanting to grow or the odd garden tool you remember you used to love so much. Well, we can help. We have developed two customized search engines that can make your life a little easier.

The Seed and Plant Finder 

Search the online catalogs of more than 500 mail-order seed companies. Just type in the variety you're looking for, and you'll get a list of links to the companies offering it.

Organic Pest Control and Garden Products Finder 

Search the Web sites of about 30 mail-order companies that carry the best selections of organic insecticides, tools and other products.

Garlic is one of Mother Nature's most versatile herbs, with qualities both culinary and medicinal. It's one of the easiest plants you can grow, and it also happens to be one of the few things you should plant right now — in the fall. (Unless you live in Wasilla, Alaska, in which case it's probably too late for you this season — but feel free to bookmark this article for next year!)

GROWING GARLIC
For those of you with still-unfrozen ground, here are a few resources to help you get started:

• Plant Now for Great Garlic 
• Plant Garlic this Fall 
• Gourmet Garlic from the Ground Up 
• Growing Garlic Scapes 
• Garlic: A Plant to Love 
• Harvest Time and Planting Time 
• Garlic Seed Sources 
• A Few of My Favorite Garlics 

GARLIC FOR HEALTH
Garlic is one of nature's greatest nutritional powerhouses. Learn more about the long list of battles it fights so well:

• Great-tasting Garlic is Good for Your Heart 
• Garlic and Your Health 
• Garlic: Nature's Gift for Life 

GARLIC IN THE KITCHEN
And now for some super garlic recipes to put those beautiful bulbs to work:

• Garlic Scapes 
• More on Scapes 
• Garlicky Bruschetta
• Extra-creamy Roasted Garlic Guacamole 
• How to Roast Garlic
• Easy Refrigerator Pickled Garlic
• Make Your Own Garlic Powder 
• Great Garlic Recipes 
• Garlic Makes It Good 

Love garlic/Don't cook? Check out these Specialty Garlic Restaurants.

If you're a serious garlic fanatic, you will want to try growing your own garlic. It doesn't take up much room, but it can be a little tricky. Check out Plant Now for Great Garlic to learn more about garlic cultivation. And here are your best bets for seed sources:

• Bobba-Mike's Garlic Farm (Orrville, Ohio)
  
• Boundary Garlic Farm (Midway, British Columbia)
  
• Cornerstone Garlic Farm (Reidsville, N.C.): 336-349-5106
  
• Filaree Farm (Okanogan, Wash.)
  
• G & H Garlic Farm (Littleton, N.H.) 
  
• Girardin Gourmet Gardens (Randolph, Minn.): 507-263-5897
  
• Gourmet Garlic Gardens (Bangs, Texas)
  
• Seed Savers Exchange (Decorah, Iowa)
  
• The Garlic Store (Fort Collins, Colo.)

If you are aware of more great sources for garlic gardeners, please use the comments section below to tell us about them.

Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady, died in her Austin, Texas home this week of natural causes. Lady Bird, or Claudia Alta Taylor Johnson, the wife of former president, Lyndon B. Johnson, is widely respected for her conservation efforts. In particular, she was a tremendous help in enacting the Highway Beautification Act of 1965, which is responsible for the 30,000 pounds of wildflower seed that's now sowed annually along highways in her home state. The thousands of wildflower species do help 'beautify'  roadways, but they reduce maintenance costs, too.

1982, with actress Helen Hayes, Lady Bird Johnson founded the National Wildlife Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin, to 'protect and preserve North America's native plants and natural landscapes.' It was later renamed the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Here are two great ways you can honor the environmental stewardship of Lady Bird Johnson:

• The Center's Native Plant Database is one the greatest services this organization provides. Find appropriate native species to plant in your area with a powerful search that allows you to limit results by state, growth habit, light and soil requirements, bloom characteristics and more.

• Make a contribution to help support the first lady's efforts to protect the natural world through the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center Endowment Fund.

To learn more about Lady Bird's legacy, check out The First Green First Lady.