Giant Veggie Gardener Edition — July 2026

The monsoon season has finally arrived in Santa Fe, and with it comes a shift in gardening strategy. Janine Cabasel, the Tomato Lady, explains that while the rains have cooled daytime temperatures from the 90s, they've also brought a new set of conditions that gardeners need to manage. The beet leaf hopper, which transmits curly top virus to tomatoes, thrives in the hot, dry, windy conditions of May and June. Now that the monsoon is here, that threat has passed — and Cabasel's key message is that gardeners can finally remove the row covers they've been using as a barrier. She lost three of her twenty tomato plants to curly top virus despite patching holes in her covers with clothespins, which shows how persistent the pest can be.

Managing Hail, Fertilizer, and the Fall Garden

Hail is a real risk during monsoon season, and Cabasel recommends using either hail netting or 30% shade cloth as a permanent protective layer. Both allow water through and can stay on all season, unlike row cover which shreds in wind. If plants do take hail damage, she advises spraying them with Monterey Complete Disease Control or liquid copper fungicide — treating the damage like an open wound that needs protection from infection.