Quick garden notes

Well, more like indoor prep for the gardens and landscaping...

Came home from work and cut out all the spare seedlings from the 72 tomatoes I potted up in red plastic cups this past weekend. As always, I felt guilty about all those poor tomato plant lives being slaughtered so, on a whim (like I need MORE tomato plants?) I filled a flat with a thin layer of ProMix (soilless seed starting mixture - looks like loose, fluffy dirt), spread all the cuttings out in a crowded mess, sprinkled on more ProMix (making sure there's plenty of exposed leaves/stems), and watered the whole mess. I figure the whole thing could die/rot and it'll just be a contribution to the compost pile, OR I could get some survivors out of it.

Worst case scenario? They'll ALL take root and survive! LOL If that happens, I'll have essentially doubled or tripled the number of tomato plants...oy. I only thought to do this after some tomato cuttings last year took root where they were discarded - tomato plants REALLY want to live, and can put roots out from just about anywhere along their stem.

Also figured I should get a jump start on some of the summer bulbs I've picked up, so I potted up 7 elephant ear bulbs and 10 hosta clumps (3 varieties). I've got dahlias, cannas, cala lilies, caladium, gladiolas, and more to pot up - some I've tried before, some are brand new to me. Hm, maybe stuff like the glads will just wait til they're directly planted into the beds...and some of these bulbs might just go as-is into the larger pots they'll spend the summer in - out on the deck or porch. I'm really hoping for a beautiful, colorful mass of growies this summer!

After that I took the three Heritage (red) and three Bristol (black) raspberries I potted up a couple weeks ago and put them outside...seems like it should be warm enough for them. The three raspberries dad gave me from his garden last year are starting to bud, and the three Kiwi Gold raspberries that were delivered last Friday and got potted up (all crammed in one pot right now) have buds. The Bristols were already leafed out in small pots when they arrived, the most of those leaves didn't appreciate the trip and are dying off, with new leaves replacing them. The Heritage were totally "dried out" bare root, and actually seemed to adapt to being potted up faster than the Bristols.

Along with the Kiwi Gold delivery was my Dwarf Asian Pear assortment - three trees, Starkling Hardy Giant, Hosui, and New Century. I've never grown fruit trees before, and understand many apple, peach, etc - the more common fruits - have major pest problems around here. Supposedly asian pears don't have as many pests here in the US yet... That could be a bunch of hooey - I don't know. But it should be fun finding out! Anyhow, the three very healthy, very pruned down trees arrived bareroot, like the raspberries. I potted them up this week (using a good-sized bag of potting mix just on the three of them!) - I don't have their designated spots in the yard ready yet, and it's way too wet out to go digging and planting without majorly compacting the soil, so I'll give them a headstart in their pots.

Pictures will come later, once these guys start growing!