After I complained last week about the damage that insects were likely to do to my squash again this year, reader Jeanne Klein wrote to suggest a solution. Squash bugs can be discouraged, she said, if you plant nasturtiums around each squash plant.

She suggested four nasturtiums per plant, although I’m not sure that the number is magical. The point, I think, is to create a barrier of odor. Nasturtiums, which are a colorful and fragrant annual, also are edible and can be tossed into a summer salad. As soon as my garden dries out enough to work in again, I’ll try this out.

This got me thinking about all of the useful knowledge, whether scientific fact or folklore, that we vegetable gardeners have accumulated through time. Toward this end, I’d like readers to e-mail me or snail-mail me in care of the Journal-World to describe their best gardening tips, so that I can share them here.

This can be something as simple as how you can tell if a melon is really ready to pick or as complicated as how you keep raccoons out of your corn. (Nonviolent methods only, please.) I learned several years ago, when the deer were jumping my garden fence with impunity, that readers have varied and creative approaches to wildlife management.

If anyone can suggest a way to keep caterpillars from decimating dill, I’ll make you a local hero, although the squash bug remedy is big competition. In addition to companion planting tips, recipes for organic insect sprays are particularly welcome.

I’ll also confer esteem upon gardeners who have devised clever ways to save water, through various planting schemes and the use of unusual mulches. If your gardening tip has been passed down from an earlier generation, be sure to mention that.

We vegetable gardeners are passionate about fertilizer, so feel free to share manure and compost tips as well.

Many of the tricks that people cherish have to do with tomatoes. A few years ago when I visited the garden of Allen Fowler, where he had a long row of tall, lush plants, I was struck by the fact that he had run a wire through the cages from one end of the row to the other. Once the plants set blossoms, he could tug the wire to jostle the entire row of plants and sort of jump-start the pollination process.

Following Jeanne’s lead on the idea of companion planting, I’ve often used basil as a means to discourage hornworms from attacking tomato plants. Does it work? Who knows. I didn’t have hornworms before I planted basil among my tomato plants and I didn’t get them afterward, so I really can’t say how effective it was. However, I have always enjoyed picking tomatoes and weeding around the plants when basil is nearby. To brush one plant and then the other, and then to breathe in the pungent aromas of each, is for me the ultimate satisfaction of summer.

Because a lot of us do things in our gardens out of habit or because they bring us pleasure, like my tomato-basil combination, it might be good to mention whether it actually works. We don’t disparage superstitions, which many gardeners also practice, but we do want to give people the straight scoop.

Contingencies are good to mention, too. I have heard that catnip planted near eggplant will chase away the flea beetles. I am curious to hear from anyone who may have tried this. It occurs to me that having all the neighborhood cats rolling around in your garden may present additional challenges. Perhaps some gardener can shed light on this.