Thank you both for your attentive answer to my inquiry. I don't have too much issue with the SVB. They usually destroy my first crop of zucchini right around the time I get tired of picking 5 or 6 new squash every 2 or 3 days... I just pull the plants and start new ones in their spots and by the time I am missing having zucchini, they are back in business again! They also usually take out my pumpkins (regardless of the type) before I get more than 1 (sometimes 2) nice pumpkins from the vine. It's sad, and unfortunate but I don't really mind. I might have to stick with moschata types though, since I was able to harvest 4 nice sized butternuts without any attention being given to them last summer (lots of traveling, little time for gardening). As far as the ability to get creative with my plants... The area I grow them in my tiny little yard is right next to the south side of my house. It is the farthest corner of my yard from my backdoor, and it is very warm there - reflection off the WHITE exterior of my wall certainly helps, I think. Anyway, this area is about 9 feet wide by 12 feet long. I put a bed in there, shaped like an "E". The Backbone of the "E" runs along the side of my house and is 12 feet long. The backbone is about 3 feet wide. Then the "spokes" coming off the E are each about 4 feet long and about 2.5 feet wide. This gives me just enough space to be able to access each area via a walkway. Two of the spokes have 7 foot trellises "permanently" in place. The trellises are 10 feet long 4x4's from recycled wooden pallets, with a cross brace and nylon garden netting for the vines to grow up. Last year this space was used for onions (the base of the E - no trellis), a cheyenne bush pumpkin (I got one nice sized pumpkin from it) and two butternut squash plants. The area got completely overgrown with weeds, as I was unable to really get in there to tend it given my schedule this past summer, but I still got 4 nice sized butternuts out of it. No weeding, no watering, etc. I just went back there to harvest when the time was right. So, creativity wise, I think I have it covered (although I'd be interested to hear other suggestions). I have another area I "could" run the vines if necessary, but that area has been decided will become a "naturalized" flower bed for my wife. The bed will kind of hide the squash vines running up and over the trellising from the street view. So, I don't want to actually have the plants running on the ground in there... kind of defeats the purpose.

Ahhhhh, Prairiemoon, I knew if I slowly dragged a pot of those "Prairie...." hosta past you, it would evoke a response! hehehe I'm that way about names myself, love a significant name. And now I notice that you are in Mass.....which is where I started my passion for hosta, in Chelmsford, next to Lowell. The only hosta I have that were not mail ordered were those I got from Bob Seawright at his nursery in Carlisle. He also has day lilies. If you are at the roundabout, you take the road past the library toward Billrica, and it is not far from there. Huge oak trees, great mature hosta beneath them, and a big field mostly daylilies. If you want to see mature hosta his display garden even in September when I saw it was awesome. Of course, that is the only time I was in a hosta garden, I am flying on faith here. Interesting thing about the visit to Seawrights. The missus noticed my accent and asked where I was from, and it turns out they are from Mississippi themselves. So we had a great discussion of the book about the 1927 Miss River flood and other regional stuff. Bob is a tall stately man, and Missus is tall and thin as well, with great reserve and elegant manners. If you seek local sources for your hosta, ask Steve-Mass which places he frequents. His place is tour-garden worthy, and he really knows the places to find great hosta.

I've looked in several large databases (nearly all of which include hybrids as well as OP's) and the only variety I found beginning with "Mississippi" is Mississippi Girl, in the French database Passion Tomate/Vent Marin. Unfortunately, the description is blank -- nothing given but the name! The tomato search engine Tomodori says Mississippi Girl appears only in Passion Tomate (of the databases and seed sites it indexes). That doesn't sound at all likely to be a variety stocked at Home Depot. How about the state of Missouri instead of Mississippi? Missouri Pink Love Apple? Missouri Hybrid, or its OP counterpart Missouri S? Missouri Roma? Missouri Giant, aka Missouri OP? Approaching this from a different direction: Bonnie Plants supplies many big-box stores (I don't know if they supply any HD's). So what varieties does Bonnie stock? The only one listed which is named for a state is Arkansas Traveler. Arkansas is just across the river from Mississippi. Other localities: San Francisco Fog, Seattle's Best of All, Homestead, and Talladega (which, like Bonnie's head office, is in Alabama, which is just next door to Mississippi). Here's Bonnie's tomato variety page, in case you want to check them all out: http://www.bonnieplants.com/tabid/420/c/215/Default.aspx I also looked in Google's seed search and found no tomato with "Mississippi" in its name. You might want to call HD and ask who provided their veggie seedlings this year, then check that vendor's web site.

I think that tomatoes from The Dwarf Project are perfect for your garden if they will produce well in our heat. I have tried several before (Rosella Purple, Dwarf Mr. Snow and some other one whose name I forget) but it was in horrible dry, hot years where they did not produce well at all, and they started producing really late. I am growing seven varieties from The Dwarf Project this year and all of them have done very well so far. With more normal weather conditions this spring than in the other years I grew them, I am hoping for better results. The ones I started from seed on Super Bowl Sunday are growing in the ground (I was going to plant them in containers but decided I wanted one of each in the ground too) and about to bloom any day now....if not today, then tomorrow. You do practically need a machete to make your may down my garden paths in summer. It is nice and neat and orderly in April, and by May is nicely filled in and looking good. Then, in June it becomes a jungle. I kinda like the jungle look, but it does make working in there challenging at times.