"Gardening in Georgia" is co-produced by GPTV and the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences. The Saturday show airs at noon and again at 7 p.m.

With the few square inches on the back of a seed packet, Reeves shows how to understand the recommended hardiness zones, planting dates and days to maturity.

He defines determinate and indeterminate tomatoes, too. (The former bear their fruit all at once and are best for canning. The latter bear fruit all summer and are best for fresh eating.)

Gardening Tools

Reeves takes a look at garden tools, too. He shows how to use self-propelled tillers, front-tine tillers and handy two-cycle models.

Some simple tools are helpful in a drought:

• Use plastic cups to measure the water your sprinkler applies. Be sure your system irrigates uniformly. And measure the time it takes to apply an inch of water.
• A ruler helps check the height of your lawn mower blade. Each lawn grass has a preferred mowing height, which helps it conserve moisture.
• Heavy fertilizing can make drought damage worse, so be sure to calibrate your spreader properly. Consider halving half your application rate when drought is in the forecast.