Tomatoes are the favorite vegetable for home growing. If you want to grow a special variety you can't find in nurseries — Sweet Million, for example — you can sprout the seeds indoors (they germinate readily) and grow your own transplants. But it's easier and quicker to grow your tomatoes from transplants you buy at the nursery, so that is the method given here.

• Select a disease-resistant variety, such as Better Boy, Ace Hybrid, or Celebrity — one that's appropriate for your needs and climate zone.
• Choose a spot in full sun, and prepare the soil by digging it deeply and mixing in Gardner & Bloome Harvest Supreme.
• Add a good vegetable fertilizer such as Dr. Earth Organic 5 Tomato, Vegetable & Herb 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.

Tips on Choosing Your Tomato Plants

1. If you are buying seeds, always buy from a reputable company. If you can find a company that grows its own seed in a climate similar to your own, so much the better. Leftover tomato seeds can be used in subsequent years provided they are well-sealed and stored in a dark, cool place. They may last up to 4 years, but you would be better off using fresh seeds each year.
2. Height and bushiness of the plant are serious considerations, particularly for gardeners growing tomatoes in small spaces.
   
3. Other factors to consider in selecting seeds or seedlings include taste, size, shape, color, mildness, (acidity or non-acidity), disease resistance, and cracking resistance. Home-growers need not consider whether the variety has "firm skin" or "uniform ripening" characteristics, as these belong to the "good shipping" types and concern primarily commercial growers.
   
4. 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. "Roma" is a good variety for making tomato paste.
   
5. Disease-resistance may be of special interest to you if a particular disease is prevalent in your area.
   
6. You may be concerned about the "days to maturity" (the time it takes for a transplant to bear ripe fruit) if your growing season is short — or you are the impatient type.
   
7. Finally, your priority may be in choosing a unique tomato plant, a novelty no one else in the neighborhood grows.

By Tamara Galbraith

Plants and their habits can be cruel sometimes. How else can you explain the reason for basil being an annual instead of a perennial? One of the most beautiful, fragrant and delicious herbs known to man, 'Ocimum basilicum' is very sensitive to cold. That we are denied its wonderful qualities year-round is just torturous.

Give it heat, sun and well-draining soil, though, and it'll do wonderful things for you. Like most herbs, little fertilization is required.

Choose from several varieties ranging in leaf color and flavor, but keep the flowers pinched off to maintain a nice plant shape and to prevent the stems from getting woody. (Some of the purple varieties do have pretty pink flowers, however.) Basil makes a good companion plant for tomatoes and peppers.

Use basil leaves, either fresh or dried, in soups, sauces, tomato dishes or with nearly any kind of meat. Basil can also be kept frozen with olive oil in ice cubes. Simply drop the frozen cube into whatever you're cooking and presto, you've got pesto! If you have any left over from cooking, dried basil is also great in a potpourri or sachet.

Saturday, June 3rd at 2 PM
Home Composting 101

Learn the basics to get you started - from a seasoned gardener.
Our very own Stephanie Reynolds will show you how to make your own "Black Gold." Free!

Saturday, June 10th at 2 PM
Bonsai Basics...
Make Your Own Bonsai

A perfect gift for Dad!
Westwood employee, Roseann Peak, who has a passion and an eye for this unique art form, will help you make your own Bonsai to take home.
Cost: $ 25.00 for materials (pre-registration required).

Saturday, June 17th at 2 PM
Containers with PIZAZZ!

Learn the secrets to making your own stunning container gardens

These basic design ideas will make all the difference!

Cost: determined by plant and container prices. You choose the container and the plants yourself.

Call 687-5952 for more information.
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