Featured Plant:Sweet Corn.

It's Fourth of July weekend. How did that sneak up on us? Hopefully your celebrations will take place outdoors and include some local sweet corn. Roasted corn on the cob is one of those all American summer rites of passage.

Corn takes up a lot of space in the garden for a long time, yet gardeners are happy to accommodate it. If you've never tasted just picked sweet corn, you owe it to yourself to try growing it at least once. Freshly picked sweet corn is like nothing you've ever purchased at any store, even the farm stand down the road. It is so tender and sweet, cooking is optional.

The challenge to growing sweet corn is having the patience to wait for it to ripen and beating the critters to the harvest. The supersweet varieties are getting all the attention, but the old fashioned standard sweet varieties really shine in the home garden, where they can be picked and cooked within minutes and you can enjoy that creamy corn texture that the supersweets are lacking.

There are dozens of varieties to try, early, mid and late-season. If you want to get the kids involved, try one of the colorful introductions with blue or red kernels, like Ruby Queen, or maybe some homegrown popcorn. Growing your own corn is worth the reward.

Photo of 'Passion' Corn Courtesy of the National Garden Bureau