A strong breeze threatened to lift a neighboring vendor's white tent at the Western Wake Farmers Market but Gertrude Jones grabbed a tent pole and without missing a beat nestled her bunches of kohlrabi in ice.

Her husband of 46 years, Harold Jones, held another side while their fellow vendor weighted the poles with chains.

The Joneses know what they are doing. It's their fourth season selling her items at the farmers market. Gertrude Jones began with cut flowers, and her bright red and gold lilies still draw visitors in. But now their offerings include potted herbs and vegetables such as asparagus.

With the Western Wake Farmers Market now open on Tuesday afternoons and Saturday mornings, the Joneses drive from Pittsboro, sometimes bringing their grandchildren as assistants.

Market Manager Kim Hunter said the market allows vendors to come from up to 120 miles away. "A little bit of distance gives us more diversity in what we can offer visitors," said Hunter. "It helps us extend the season - our vendors from eastern North Carolina might have things like watermelons available earlier in the season, while vendors from Hillsborough or Pittsboro might offer them later."

She said the market is a producer-only market, meaning that they cannot resell other farmers' products.

For the Joneses, this is not an issue. Harold Jones holds a bachelor's degree in horticulture from N.C. State University and owned a landscape gardening business until pain in his legs made the constant activity too difficult. Gertrude Jones was the 11th child of an Amish family in southern Maryland and grew up near chickens, dairy farmers and rows of crops the children helped maintain.

In an interview, Harold Jones said gardening is like anything else: you shouldn't do it unless it's a passion.

Q: How did the two of you choose what to grow?

A: Gertrude started out wanting to sell cut flowers. She has a knack for it. She finds things out when other people struggle. We have a greenhouse, and she happened to leave some asters under the light and had great success with them where many of our friends failed. We found out later, quite by accident, that asters prefer "long days" and like that extra light.

While she was gardening, I realized I could scoot around in my scooter outside, and I started planting vegetables. Now we sell vegetables, too.

Q: What advice would you give amateur gardeners who want to try their hands at growing vegetables?

A: Don't get into it unless you love it. You can't start figuring out how many dollars or hours you put into it, because then you'd never do it. You would be frustrated. Gardeners enjoy just being out in the garden, feeling the sunshine and fresh air.

Q: You must have to be very patient, too. With crops like asparagus, don't you have to wait a few years before you get results?

A: Yes, the first year, you're told not to harvest it. Then the second year, you get one week to harvest. The third year, you can harvest for a couple of weeks. This is our fourth year growing it.

Q: Much is made about composting. What is your advice for home gardeners about compost?

A: Crops respond well to compost, like leaves and mulch that have broken down. I've tried the quick composting methods, but they're a lot of work. It is very important that the materials have broken down before you use them, because if they're fresh, they will eat up all the nitrogen in the soil.

Q: There is a lot of competing information about gardening techniques. How should amateurs decide what to do?

A: Professionals may say things won't work, but people shouldn't be so dogmatic. I do read Organic Gardening and Mother Earth News, and Barbara Pleasant [an organic gardening expert] writes detailed articles about a specific plant in each issue. Even the experts can be wrong, though, when it comes down to your own taste. Many experts say things like, "lettuce shouldn't be allowed to grow past a certain point, or it will be bitter." But I love it that way. Gertrude makes a wonderful spring salad, and we eat the lettuce late into the season.

We grow things that we eat ourselves.