Tomatoes are herbaceous plants that are easiest to grow and they are largely seen growing abundantly in most home gardens. For the reasons that they are very popular, useful and nothing can beat the taste of a fresh grown home tomato. This article will reveal some salient information on simple tomato growing tips. And if you need to know about these tips, then read this. There are a lot of things you can do to succeed in your tomato gardening and here are some helpful tips you can try to achieve best tasting tomatoes from your own garden.

When you are setting up your tomato bed, try adding horticultural corn meal at about two pounds for every 10 by 10 foot area. Adding horticultural corn meal will make the soil healthy as well as your tomato plant can be protected against fungal diseases.

You can also add two pounds of dried molasses for every 100 sq. feet of bed soil to minimize fungi from attacking, as well as to add up more nutrients in the soil. Furthermore, planting marigold together with your tomatoes does not only add up to the appearance but it will aid in reducing the number of harmful nematodes in the soil. Aside from marigold, you can also plant some chives and basil around your tomatoes to get rid of insects.

Planting other plants together with tomatoes is one best tomato growing tips but not all plant can be. Avoid planting potatoes near your tomatoes because potatoes can bring bacterial wilt. If your tomatoes need extra support, you can tie them up and it is advisable to cut the hose into 2 inches wide strips to prevent the stems from pinching when you tie them.

Furthermore, have your tomato garden watered early in the morning. And when you do watering, avoid pouring water from the top because tomatoes are not that strong. The best water system is the drip irrigation and if you are unlucky enough to have one, you can re-use some old cans by punching some holes in the side. Bury the old cans until it reaches their necks closer to your tomatoes, and slowly pour water into the cans so the water will be slowly gives off into the soil.

When you aren’t aware of the best harvest time, wait until the last possible time to harvest your tomatoes to give them ample time to ripen on the vine. But if you can’t wait, place them in a paper bag after harvesting and store them in a dark cool place. Sunlight is not needed in the ripening of tomatoes. And lastly, select healthy tomato seeds in starting your garden and find the best planting season and spot. Take your time in your tomato gardening and be guided with this simple tomato growing tips.

Linda H. Stephens is a well-experienced gardener who discovered a lot of secrets on how to grow big, juicy, and quality tomatoes and helped other people through specific <a href=”http://www.supertomatogrowingsecrets.com/tomato-growing-tips/”>tomato growing tips</a>. She compiled all her knowledge about growing quality tomatoes in her book “SUPER Growing Secrets: The Perfect Guide To Growing Quality Tomatoes” for other people’s benefit. To learn more about growing quality tomatoes, visit her website <a href=”http://www.supertomatogrowingsecrets.com/”>http://www.supertomatogrowingsecrets.com</a>.

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How to transplant Raspberry Bushes

A couple of years ago I bought 2 healthy raspberry plants but didn’t realize the spot I chose for them wouldn’t get enough sunlight. Now I want to transplant the raspberries to a sunny spot so they can produce a lot more fruit for us.

I originally put them on the north side of our property so they would have better drainage but the garage is blocking most of their sun all summer long.

They did produce enough fruit for us to enjoy a couple bowls each but I would like to get them to the point we will be able to make some preserves so we can enjoy them through the winter and that’s going to take a whole lot more sun than they are getting right now.

Raspberries Need Direct Sunlight

I am kind of excited to see what will happen because as it is they get about an hour of direct sunlight a day, even in the summer, and where I am moving them to gets more than 6 hours of sunlight a day.

Raspberries Like Good Drainage

The main reason I put them on the north side of the garage was for the drainage. Our yard has very poor drainage.

Last year I added a vegetable garden to the south side of our yard and put in lots of fresh top soil and peat moss, now it drains really well, so I will prepare the area for my raspberries the same way so they drain well.

Separate The Canes And Roots

Looking at the plants I have I believe I can get about 6 or 8 new raspberry plants.

I will plant them in one row and have them about 18 or so inches apart so they get as much elbow room and sun as possible.

I will be sure to remove all the existing dirt from the roots so that they are clean. Even though I am sure they are very healthy I still want to give them best chance of survival so I will clean them and start them fresh with lots of new top soil.

Add Mulch To Keep Moisture In And Weeds Out

We had already put mulch around our raspberry plants and it worked great to keep them moist so they didn’t dry out and it also kept down any weeds that might have taken nutrients from the soil.

I couldn’t tell you how many times I have bought plants on impulse only to find they don’t really fit my home garden. Now, before I buy plants, I  examine our backyard garden to see what fits in.

What do I pay attention to now?

• I pay attention to things like, how much sun and shade it will get
• Is the soil well drained or waterlogged
• Is the spot I want to plant in sheltered or windswept

The little list above is what I have messed up on in the past so now I know our yard and have done much better choosing the best plants for our home gardening needs.

We didn’t check our soil because it was so obvious that it was all clay and hard as cement, which meant it didn’t drain well at all.We have to add a lot of our soil in order to have it drain but once that was done we had an entirely new home garden that grows more than weeds.

My advice is to test your soil to determine the pH level of your soil and what kind of nutrients you need to add, if any.

Is the soil acid or alkaline?

Some plants prefer soil that is slightly acidic, while others require alkaline soil to grow well.  You can test your soil and then just plant accordingly but we prefer to amend the soil to suit the plants we wish to grow. It’s a little more work but well worth our time and effort as we get a much better looking home garden.

This way we can grow plants, flowers and veggies, that we want. Heck we would be planting mostly water loving plants as our yard just wouldn’t drain for days at a time. Now it drains everywhere and we have all the plants we wanted.

Getting Arrangements You Want

Before you dig in take the time to place the plants you’ve chosen around the garden bed in their pots to see how they will look. Re-arrange them until you are satisfied. It’s so much better than rearranging them after you have them in the ground.

Grouping plants in sets of threes or fives usually looks better than planting in groups of even numbers. Be sure that you have an interesting combination of colors and textures of plants. Tall plants should go to the back, or the centre if your garden will be viewed equally from all sides. Try to keep your plants away from trees. The roots of trees are fiercely competitive and will steal all the nutrients and moisture meant for your flowers.

The right color scheme is one way to maintain the harmony in your garden. Imagine the color of the flowers when they are in bloom. Some colors may clash with others, but can still be planted side-by-side if they have a different blooming season. Foliage color is also important. Many flower plants have silver, grey or purplish foliage that is just as attractive as the flower. This means that they are still attractive well past the blooming season and so have added value.

Gardening at home is a great way to help cut down on food costs so it’s a rewarding hobby in more ways than one. The only thing is a lot of people think that you need a lot of yard space to grow a garden, well we thought that.

I can definitely say that gardening has changed my life so I would like to share a couple of home gardening tips that will show you that you can have a garden with just a little space.

We started our first garden in containers. Yup, just a few pots and we were on our way to being home gardeners.

The first thing you need to think about is what basic needs do plants have.

1. Light
2. Soil
3. Water
4. Temperature

That’s pretty much it. Give a plant the right amount light, soil and water along with the right temperature and you can grow your own little veggie garden.

So here a few home gardening tips that will help you successfully grow veggies, even indoors if you want.

1. Your Garden Needs Light

You might have just looked at point #1 and said DUH!! but lighting is vital for a healthy plant. Without the proper lighting you could be doing everything else 100% and still fail, so pay close attention to your source of light.

When we first started gardening it was a pretty small garden and I didn’t pay any attention to the path the sun follows through the summer and ended up with a garden that pretty much had to grow in the shade most of the time.

2. The Soil You Plants Live In

Plants have to put down roots to survive. If the soil you use is too hard you need to change that. We had very clay soil so we dug up the little plot we chose for our garden and then mixed it with about the same amount of peatmoss.

Adding the peatmoss did a couple of things. 1. It allowed the soil to become less dense than the clay was so the plants could sink roots easily. 2. The ground didn’t drain well at all before the peatmoss and now it drains just fine.

3. We All Need Water, Even Plants

Your veggie plants are going to need watering on a regular basis so they don’t dry up and die. But at the same time you don’t want to water them so much that you drown them.

The top of the soil can look dry and people will run for the water but it’s better to stick your finger in the dirt about an inch or two and see if it’s dry down there. Lots of times they don’t need watering so you are just wasting water.

I already mentioned the soil needs to drain well, so pay attention to that when you water.

4. Temperature Is Kind Of Important

The temperature usually isn’t that important during the summer but when you are first planting outdoors in the spring you want to keep in mind the most common date for the last threat of frost.

Here where we live I have heard all my life to plant before June 10th at your own risk. You can plant before that most years but I would put a cover sheet over my plants at night until the threat is gone.

Using Containers For Gardening

I would add that you can grow your home garden in containers, even indoors, as long as you meet the needs of your plants.

The really cool thing about container gardening is that you can move them to the best spot, unlike my first garden.

Don’t be afraid to transplant your veggies into a container that’s big enough so they can grow a strong healthy root system.

We used containers to grow strawberries, tomatoes, peppers, so many things but the coolest thing I have grown in containers was potatoes. We got a lot of potatoes for the size of the pot we used. We hung the strawberry container and let the plant grow to the ground.

I planted the potatoes in the container and in our garden on the same day and harvested them at the same time. The potatoes in the ground were bigger but there were about the same amount in the container, they were just a little smaller, but just as good.

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You may be feeling the pinch from the recession we are living in so I thought I would share a few tips that will save you some money.

1. Make Your Own Compost

Save the environment and stop sending things to the landfill that don’t need to be going their. I am of course talking about kitchen waste and yard waste that could be composted and used in your garden or containers.

We started composting last year in 2009 and just loved it. Now we don’t spend money on buying compost and additives for the soil, plus we are sending hundreds of pounds less to the landfill so Mother Nature thanks us.

2. Start From Seed

I meant to go this route a couple of years ago but time just sorta slipped away and before we knew it planting time had arrived and all our seeds were still in their neat little packages.

We ended up spending hundreds of dollars on plants. DUH!!

This year I have set aside a room in the basement for my own little nursery and will start as many vegetables and flowers as I can in the space we have.

Think about starting from seed. You will pay less for one pack of sees and get perhaps dozens if not more plants from that pack. So if you paid a dollar for the pack of seeds and grow a dozen plants you saved more than ten dollars right there.

Then, when your plants go to seed you can collect and save those seeds for next year, which saves you even more money. Pretty cool.

3. Start Mulching NOW

We didn’t do any mulching for years in our flower beds and never really thought about, all the time weeding unnecessarily. Not any more…

Now we have started putting mulch around more every plant we have and guess what, it takes far less watering as the water doesn’t evaporate as fast with mulch down.

We also have almost no weeding at all.

Note: put the mulch thick enough that starter shoot from weeds can’t get any light of the mulch won’t work well. I am talking from first hand experience.

4. Start A Vegetable Garden

We did a lot of flower gardening before we finally bought a place big enough that we didn’t have to use containers for everything.

Vegetable gardening is a great way to grow things at home instead of going to the superstore and giving them your money.

We started small with a 4 x 16 foot gardening and had great fun. It didn’t turn into a disaster at all, thanks to veggie gardening tips I have found around the net. Next year we plan to double or triple the garden size.

We plan to grow enough produce this year that we can preserve some for the winter months and save even more money. Our home is an older home and still has a cold room in the basement. Bonus.

5. Buy A Rain Barrel, Cut Down On The Water Bill

It’s a great idea to collect rain water so that you don’t have to use tap water as it takes away from our water table.

Keep a fine mess over the barrel to keep out breeding insects like misquitoes. We just use the same mess/screen that we put on our windows. It’s cheap and does the job perfectly.

Never leave standing water uncovered.

BONUS TIP: Grow herbs both indoors and outdoor so you have fresh herbs all year long. Keep your herbs in containers so that you can have them close to your kitchen if your garden isn’t.