11 Ways to Keep Your Garden Healthy

7. Plant disease-resistant varieties

Disease-resistant plants are those that might get sick with a particular problem but will fight off the disease instead of succumbing to it. For instance, some tomatoes are coded as “VFN resistant,” which means the tomato variety is resistant to the fungi Verticillium and Fusarium and to nematodes.

If you start looking for these codes on flowers, you’ll probably be dis­appointed because disease resistance is rarely iden­tified on plant tags. This doesn’t mean that numerous flower varieties are not resistant to disease. Many rose companies offer plants that are resistant to diseases like powdery mildew and black spot.