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It is late spring and it is a great time to talk about tomatoes and potatoes. Both plants are part of the nightshade family and our native to South America.

In order to grow potatoes, you have to held them with either soil or mulch. The tubers grow above the seed potatoes. And once you start seeing the flowers, you can begin harvesting them. And you can harvest them throughout the fall in temperate conditions.

This year I purchased organic seed potato from May. And in this bed, I planted a large variety of potatoes, from an old blue variety to a cranberry red variety. I can not wait to start cooking them up.

A Tomato is actually a fruit. A tomato is formed wherever you see a cluster of flowers. Tomato seeds need to be started indoors before the last day of frost and planted in your garden in mid-spring.

It can take as little as 65 days to begin harvesting tomatoes in early varieties and as early as 95 days to begin harvest in the late tomato varieties.

Heirloom tomatoes are some of the best tomatoes you can grow in your garden because of the tastiest tomatoes you can grow in your garden.

Other genetically modified tomatoes are not bred for taste, they are bred for size or color, whereas heirloom tomatoes are passed down from generation to generation where only the best tomatoes get replanted year after year.

This heirloom tomato here is called Tiffen Mennonite. It grows into a huge plant that grows one pound red tomatoes.

Tomatoes need to be supported while they grow. And you can do that by using one of the three different methods.

The first is Sticking. As the plant grows you attached the tomato plant to the stick with a garden tie. For caging, you can purchase one like this and place it over the tomato plant. The plant will grow through the cage.

The last method is with the trailers like this one. As the plant grows, train it through to vertical support.

Some quick facts about tomatoes, tomatoes get their red color from lycopene. Lycopene is an antioxidant and it has been proven to prevent certain types of cancer.

Now if you find red tomatoes, a little too acidic, you can grow your own yellow or orange varieties of tomatoes that contain less acid.

I am Patti Moreno, the Garden Girl. Thanks for watching.