Washington ? Maya Lewis and her family have moved into a new home in Bowie, Md., but her favorite wild spot is her old back yard.

“The garden had lots of different kinds of insects like caterpillars and ants and lots of beetles,” she writes. “There were lots of butterflies in the spring and summer.

“At nighttime you would always see at least a deer or two (in) our garden.”

Deer also visit the garden at Maya’s new home, where the sly mammals have nibbled down a squash plant growing in the raised beds that the family built.

Gardening expert Bob Stewart has come to visit Maya’s garden of tomatoes, squash, corn, parsley, peppers, lettuce, rosemary, sage, cucumber, cabbage, basil and sweet potatoes.

“A good way to decide when to water (the garden) is to use a soil tester. Everybody has one,” he says, holding up a finger, “. . . TEN of them!”

He sticks his finger into the garden soil. “If it feels wet or damp, then you know you don’t need any water today. But when you stick it in the ground and you can’t feel any moisture, then you know that, in the next day or so, you’ll need to water. Plants don’t do well if they’re dry, but they also don’t do well if they are wet all the time.”

In last summer's garden, Maya Lewis watches a black swallowtail caterpillar feeding on parsley leaves.

Bob shows his finger to Maya. “A good gardener doesn’t really have a green thumb,” he says, “they have a brown thumb!”

Weeding is a chore for every gardener. Stewart suggests mulching the garden with grass clippings to keep the weeds away.

Insects don’t seem to be a problem yet. “You have a ‘honeymoon garden,'” Stewart tells Maya. “Often the first couple of years of a garden are pretty trouble-free from bugs and diseases. But after you’ve had the garden for a few years, then things start to show up.”

Maya has made plans for her extra produce: “I’m going to sell the vegetables.” She will visit a nearby community pool when kids start getting out of camps.

Does she really think kids will buy the vegetables?

“No,” she says, “their parents will be with them.”

Young gardener Maya Lewis and Maryland agriculture expert Bob Stewart prepare a tomato seedling for transplanting into a raised vegetable bed at her Bowie, Md., home. Stewart has come to visit Maya's garden to offer advice, and admiration.