You can always copy Mother Nature and toss any seed onto the ground as soon as it is ripe. A little clearing out of other plants and roughing up the soil to allow better contact with the soil once it rains/gets watered. You could also summer sow--which is just like wintersowing, with the milk jug, etc, but at a later time. The advantages of the container are: constant ambient moisture to improve germination and prevent drying out as fragile seedlings, avoidance of washing away in a torrential downpour, avoiding the seeds and seedlings becoming lunch for some hungry rodent, and the containers are labeled, so you know what is growing and can plant it where ever you like and move them in and out of appropriate levels of sunlight/cold, etc. Happy sowing! Martha

Lavender should do great in the Willamette Valley. I've had bad luck with lavender from seeds - it's not exactly the stongest germinator. I think my problem is that they apparently need strong light to germinate, and I'm not set up for that and the weather in Seattle doesn't really cooperate! I have gotten some to germinate, but the seedlings are slow growing and I eventually lose patience. I would recommend that you buy small plants, if your budget allows. Little three inch pots are easy to come by and are cheap here in Seattle, and they grow up to gallon size in one year. I'm having some success now with layering my older shrubs. I mound up soil on lower branches in the spring so that they are under the soil with tips peeking out, and then cut the rooted branches in the fall for a new plant. If budget is a problem, you might want to invest in a couple of big plants, and propagate them like this to get more.

They're all coming along quite nicely and you have picked some real good ones. I've grown all that you have, except Goliath. Most, I'm sure as you know, have "late" DTM's. KB, Mexico, and GG were very late for me, 100+ days, so I hope your's come a bit earlier. The Brandywine's have been a challenge for me,and many other people, but are always in my garden each year. I grow BW Sudduth and BW Red (RL) and they produce well since I began shaking all my plants early in the AM during the hot months of Summer. It's made a huge difference over the last 3 years. Paul Robeson should be the first to ripen and CP and Carbon will follow. I would guess that you might see something in the mid to end of Sept. The bulk of them ripenng in Oct. and hopefully beyond. I've given seedlings to a gal that lives in Clairemont and works with my wife. She told me this morning that she hasn't had much luck growing tom's in the Fall, but DON"T let that discourage you with what you have going. I would suggest that you put your seedlings out as soon as possible, starting in a week or so. OUT of the wind and in the shade to start and slowly introduce them to the sun. There's plenty of info. here and elsewhere. I learned alot here: http://www.nctomatoman.topcities.com/nctomatomanWebPage.htm Drop me an email..it's available from "My Page" here at GW. Rob

Sure!! Especially if you have determinate type tom's. I find my indeterminate plants can get really HUGE by August. I put my plants out very late this year and they are already 4' and no doubt will be topping thier 5' cages by August. By starting a second planting of my indeterminates in late May I can have fresh new plants rather than trying to coax older plants to continue being productive. Just be careful of where you plant the new plants. Be sure to plan ahead of time where you are going to plant your fist plants and then the second set. Make sure you plant the fist plants in such a way that they will not act as shade to the second set. Once you know the East/West sun patten be sure to plant the first set of plants on the West side. This way the new plants can be set out and not be shaded by the larger ones. This might be a "no kidding" thing, but if you don't take these things into account in the very beginning it can really mess you up when it comes to do the second planting. Take it from a guy who has already been there and done that. Also, stagger the planting of your determinate plants every couple of weeks. That way you will always have a fresh supply of tom's comming to the table and not one giant harvest. Here in Thousand Oaks, I have had nice ripe tomatos at the end of October. Even though the fall daytime temps stay nice and warm the nighttime temps can drop to the point that the plants will not set fruit. When temps begin to fall too low I pick my best few plants at the end of the season and wrap plastic around them in the evening to help hold in some heat and to keep the chill off. I have even put a flood light inside the wrapped cage at night to help keep the temp up if I feel like I really want to keep the harvest going longer. I don't use grow lights because I want the plant to have the needed rest time it normally gets at night. Every year is different though. I have had years where many of my plants stayed productive till the end of October, while other years a single cold spell snapped the life out of my plants in early October. There are simply no guarantees. There is no point to starting new plants in the fall as the temps are just too low (even here) during winter. It may not snow, but SoCal, at some point, usually gets down to the 30's in Dec and Jan (at least where I am). One frost and the plants are toast. But we can generally set our plants out in the garden earlier than most of the country. I usually have a couple of plants in the ground by late March. Since the ground never freezes and we only get about 12" of rainfall a year, I can always find a weekend, or two, to go out and work the plot in Dec or Jan so that it will be ready in March. Prepping the soil in Dec or Jan lets the new compost to continue to mellow so that by March/early April things are just great. Althought there was a problem of too much overcast this year. It did not seem to get sunny all day until the middle of June. That means the plants grew nicely, but flower production was delayed. That is why some people question putting out plants that early. Well, I put a couple out that early because, if it works, I'll have nice ripe fruit in June. Even so, by putting the plants out earlier the plant has gone through the shock of being transplanted so that when conditions are rite they will be ready. The temps seemed a lot cooler this year than normal (what happened to all the talk about global warming - ya right!!). I usually have nice ripe fruit by the middle of June, just not this year. If you have a variety you really like, in mid to late May take a couple of the suckers from your healthiest plants, trim all the leaves off and plant it neck deep -to the point that only about two inches of plant is above the potting soil (the longer the sucker the better). The new plant will develop roots all along the length of the sucker that is below the surface. Before you know it you will have nice new plants for the garden. Sure is a lot faster than starting again from seed. Remember, because this is a plant and not a seed you need to keep it in sunlight from the start, and don't let the soil dry out. Also, while a seed has its own store of energy the sucker does not. So, unless your potting soil mix has fertilizer in it (many do), you will need to be sure to either add complst to the mix or fertilize occasionally. Just remember that the garden plot needs to be replennished at some point. New organic matter needs to be worked into the soil, it needs to rest a while, not to mention I need a break from the garden myself. For me this happens from Dec to Mar. We in SoCal can push the soil too far if we ar not aware of just how much it is being used.