Tomatoes are the favorite vegetable for home growing. Over the past years, commercial growers have produced tomato varieties that valued shelf-life and unblemished prettiness over taste--and the result has been an almost tasteless tomato at your local stores. You can put taste back on top of the list by growing your own.

• Height and bushiness of the plant are important, particularly for gardeners growing tomatoes in small spaces. Check to see whether the variety you select is "determinate" (bush type--produces all at once--best for small spaces) or "indeterminate" (vine type--produces throughout the season and grows in all directions).
• Consider taste, size, shape, color, mildness, (acidity or non-acidity), disease resistance, and cracking resistance.
• Your intended use for the tomato may dictate your selection. For instance, if you want to use your tomato crop for preserving or for making tomato paste, you'll want to select a variety that has a strong tomato flavor and lasts a long time in the refrigerator.
• Depending on when you plant, you may be concerned about the "days to maturity" (the time it takes a transplant to bear ripe fruit.)
• Finally, consider selecting a few unique tomato plants, that you haven't tried before or a novelty variety no one else in the neighborhood grows.

• Choose a spot in full sun, and prepare the soil by digging it deeply with a spade and mixing in a good planting mix.
• Add a good vegetable fertilizer.
• Plant transplants deeply. If they're leggy, snip off the lower leaves, make a little trench with the trowel, lay the plant in sideways, and bend the stem up gently. Roots will form all along the buried stem.
• Choose a staking system (such as a tomato cage or trellis).
• Water deeply and continue to irrigate so the soil stays evenly moist.

Grow your own tomatoes! Your taste buds will thank you!

Tropical gardens lift our spirits and transport us into magical, exotic places such as Hawaii, Bali, Florida's Keys, the Bahamas and beyond. Although not everyone wants a completely tropical backyard, the beauty of tropical plants is undeniable. The addition of tropical plants to your garden may bring you one step closer to your dream of these wonderful faraway places.

When you think of tropical, what comes to mind? Large-leaf foliage plants, spectacular splashes of colorful flowers, exotic looking flowers and foliage. The tropical look has been aptly described as "flamboyant in form and contrast." As you read this article, release your biases regarding the uses of tropical plants. Imagine ways that you can introduce your favorite tropical into your cottage garden or classic garden. We think that you will find the perfect location for your favorite one.

Alternatively, tropical garden lovers, discover other plants not classically considered "tropical" and put them into your garden--and you'll love the effect. Abutilon is excellent for this. Tibouchina (princess flower), acuba, fuchsia, camellia and impatiens are other plants that help you think out of the tropical plant box.

From the horticultural point of view, "tropical" means a plant that cannot sustain freezing temperatures. So, not all plants so defined will have that lush tropical look, will they! Actually. there are "tropical" desert plants too, including cactus and succulents.

Tropical plants exemplified in this article may be included simply because they are tropical looking. And some plants may also be drought tolerant and not from what we consider a classic tropical locale. But blended together, they create that exotic tropical look.

Plant them into your garden, whatever its style may be...Well, keep in mind that plants can take on the characteristics of their surrounding plant neighbors. This is why we would encourage you, if your choice is not a tropical garden, to consider our tropical friends anyway. The variation in foliage color, textures and size will add a new element. Remember, in garden design, it is good to vary these elements to add interest to your garden borders.

The tropical plant (and tropical-look plant) list is long and diverse. The list below names just a few. We're sure you could think of just as many more!

Trees: Bananas (musa and ensete), brugmansia (Angel's Trumpet), palms, tree ferns, dracena, cassia, tibouchina, tupidanthus, schefflera, and feijoa (guava).

Shrubs: Abutilon, acuba, brunsfelsia (Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow plant), ferns, philodendrons, hibiscus, fatsia, gardenia, iresine, justicia, and strelitzia (Bird of Paradise).

Vines: Burmese honeysuckle, bougainvillea, tecoma (yellow trumpet flowers), distictus (trumpet flowers), and passion flower vines.

Grasses: Cyperus (papyrus), sedges, bamboo, and liriope.

Miscellaneous: Aloe, begonia (rex hybrids), clivia, plumeria, bromeliads, fuchsia, and impatiens.

Are you able to find a perfect place in your garden for any one of these? If you need more help with this, just ask any one of us. We will be happy to help you create your tropical island garden get-away!

Raspberries sing out "summertime!" as soon as you pop one in your mouth. Just the thought of enjoying a bowl of fresh raspberries straight from the garden is enough motivation to plant and cultivate these delicate, sweet gems of summer.

But raspberries are also considered a super-food, as they are high in fiber and contain vitamin A, folate, antioxidants, and numerous minerals. Their juice is a rich source of vitamin C, and even their little seeds contain nutrient-rich vitamin E. In fact, preliminary medical research suggests a likely benefit of regularly consuming raspberries: potential health protection against several human diseases, inflammation, pain, cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, allergies, age-related cognitive decline and degeneration of eyesight with aging.

Raspberries are also really easy to grow--in fact, your biggest challenge may be to keep your patch from growing too large, as raspberries will produce many new canes each spring (just weed out anything you don't want or need). Finally, raspberry flowers can be a major source of nectar for honeybees and other pollinators, a vital key to keeping any garden healthy and happy.

Growing raspberries successfully takes carefully choosing a variety suitable to your area, adopting a stable trellis system for the berries each year, and giving proper attention to their growing needs (water, drainage and feeding). With a good foundation in place, you'll enjoy your raspberry patch for many years.

Raspberries bear fruit on two-year-old wood, except for the ever-bearing raspberries that also fruit on first year growth. These are also called two crop raspberries because they bear a late summer or fall crop on the first year growth and a second crop the following spring on the two-year-old wood.

Different types of wood? What's that all about? Ok, it may help clear up a lot of confusion about raspberry culture if one remembers that after flowering and fruiting, any cane that bore fruit dies back to the crown. All the new growth will rise out from primary buds just below the soil line. In fact, after you've picked all the fruit off of the cane, it's advisable to cut back that cane, to limit pests and diseases that may afflict the plant while it is dormant.

Now here's the good news: raspberries will thrive in most locations and soil types, but good drainage is desirable with most varieties--just give them some room to ramble because they do like to spread out. In fact, raspberries tolerate very cold temperatures much better than blackberries, in terms of cold-hardiness. If you are not blessed with rich, deep soil that drains well year-round, you can build a raised bed, filling it with a mixture of good garden soil and about one-fifth sand, peat, and well-rotted manure. If you have acidic soil, you will also need to amend it to increase alkalinity, because raspberries prefer a soil pH of around 6.0. (If you are unsure, our helpful garden pros can help you determine your soil pH and how to adjust it.)

The optimum time to plant raspberries is in spring after the danger of frost has passed, which is happily the best time to find plants, though you can transplant healthy raspberry plants anytime throughout the summer. Spring plants will establish better, however, and may even give you a small crop their first summer.

Most berries like being fed at blooming time, with a follow-up feeding in early fall after the plants have finished fruiting. Just use a well-balanced fruit food. They prefer staying moist in summer, and should be watered regularly if rainfall is insufficient. If you are using a raised bed, this will hold water while still allowing for proper drainage. A good rule of thumb is "damp in summer--dry in winter."

The new canes that grow out each spring will not bear fruit until the following summer when they are two years old. After harvest, the two-year-old fruiting canes will start to die back and should be removed as close to the ground as possible without injuring the new canes.

Most raspberry growers use some supportive structure for their patch. Substantial trellises or pergolas made of wrought iron or sturdy wood are popular choices, but anything that can bear the (surprising) weight of the fruit that grows at the end of the canes is all that is needed. The simplest approach is planting canes against a fence or wall that receives lots of sunlight, using strings or 16 gauge wire tied to staples at either end of the row to hold the canes up off of the ground. In mild climates, berries can be trained to stakes or trellises in late summer or early fall, after the fruiting canes have been removed. In colder climates, the canes should be left on the ground over winter--making them less likely to be damaged by cold--and trained to the trellis after their spring pruning. The ideal time to "spring train" is after the danger of freezing weather and before the leaf buds begin expanding.

Hessell's Greenhouse has 'Latham' and 'Heritage' raspberry plants in stock now, which grow well in our area. Raspberries are healthy to eat, easy to grow, and they taste delicious....what are you waiting for? Hessell's has all the tools and materials you need to plant your own raspberry patch so you can enjoy the taste of summer in your own backyard.