Larry...although TC's are true cactus, they're epiphytic, therefore don't have the typical requirement of other succulents. TC's require humidity. That's where plastic comes in. Marjie, do you have a clear, plastic bag lying around? If so, place the pot inside the plastic. If you enclose the bag airtight, you may not have to water, but check soil periodically in case soil does dry. If you fear wrapping the plant entirely, you can cut slits in the plastic for air circulation. Either way will work. As I stated above...when a TC segment broke off mom, I tossed the cutting in a pot atop soil...with success..Didn't apply effort, no digging a hole then placing segment inside. But, during summer humidity is high so nature takes care of greenery. 'Outdoors.' There's no need to place TC cuttings in plastic during humid, summer months. Indoors, especially this time of year when air is dry, a different approach is needed. Don't fear using plastic. Think about it as a temporary green house. :) Toni

Glad that my suggestion may help, gatormomx2. The "pot-within-a-pot" system has the added benefit of protecting the tree from blow-over damage in strong winds. Also, you can incorporate a tree into a garden area without it looking out-of-place. For my Key lime, I used those circular storage tubs you can get from WalMart for about $5-6 each, and they have heavy woven nylon rope handles. Cut a few drainage holes in the bottom, and they're good to go. puglvr1 -- I use the large 10x12 frost blankets, and try to use them double-thickness when I can, although on the larger trees I have to spread them all the way out. As for heat, I, too, use Christmas lights on a couple of trees. But for my mango trees and citrus, I use a 140-foot heating cable I bought from Charley's. I planted six of my most sensitive trees (including three mangoes) near an outside outlet, so I can loop about 8-10 feet of cable around the base of each tree. The entire cable puts out 700 watts, so each foot is worth 5 watts...not much. As the trees get larger, I'm going to have to augment with Christmas lights (on a different circuit!) as well. The winter temps up here are brutal! This past winter, even with the heat and frost blankets, killed my jakfruit and knocked my Mallika mango back to an inch of the graft. It's so frustrating to try to grow nice things, and so incredibly labor-intensive too. I must have rocks in my head... -Bruce

I stumbled upon this "conversation" while searching for more info on grape hyacinths. I planted these along the front edge of all the garden beds in my front yard last year, nearly 1000 bulbs, and this past spring they were glorious! The leaves have begun to come back up, thicker than last year, but some of the leaves are so long and floppy that they very much resemble crab grass leaves and lay all over everything nearby. I would love to trim these leave back a bit so they would stand up on their own and look nicer but I don't want to harm the bulbs. Does anyone have any information about how to keep these a little more under control? Also, schoolhouse: the thing you're talking about is called a bulb auger. I don't know about on TV but I've had one for about 20 years. It fits into my drill like a drill bit, only it's about 2 ft. long. It works pretty well for planting bulbs and saves your knees a little better than a hand bulb planter or a trowel.

I wouldn't worry if the soil is compact. You can grow tomatoes in clay if you really want to (and there are both pros and cons to this). If your area is arid, you might not have problems with fungal diseases from mud splashing on your leaves, either. With all that ground cover from the grass around, I'm guessing you wouldn't need to worry about that as much, though. That said, however, if you have really loose soil atop clay, tomatoes may hesitate to venture into the clay, and just fill up the loose soil. I've seen this happen in a container with about half clay (on the bottom) and half potting soil (on the top). The clay was almost untouched, by comparison. One thing you can do is grow your tomatoes out bigger before you plant them outdoors (give them more light indoors for faster, stronger growth). You don't need a special grow light (CFLs will work, even if they're not 6500k, but higher color temperatures are better for leaf growth; lower ones are better for flowering and protecting your seedlings from damping off disease, but they'll help leaf growth, too). Then, you can use a post hole digger to dig a narrow, but deep hole, and plant the plant. Because it'll be deep, competing with weeds shouldn't be much of a problem insofar as nutrient competition goes, unless the grass or weeds have deep roots or are parasitic. Tomatoes will also grow roots all along the buried stem. Normally, tomatoes don't need to be planted particularly deep, but it does help them get more water and nutrients. More nutrients doesn't necessarily mean bigger tomatoes. You have to keep in mind that the nutrient balance also matters (not just the pure amount of a certain one). Deep tomatoes seem to be easier to dry farm. However deep you plant them, though, make sure there's lots of foliage up top, still. If you plant them super deep but only leave a few leaves up top, they might take a long time to grow big, but if you have plenty of leaves up top, they should grow fast. If you want big tomatoes (since I brought it up) get a variety that gets big in your climate and conditions, and make sure it gets enough potassium, phosphorus and magnesium. Not all tomatoes are the same, and many have different requirements. Where do you live? I recommend saving your seeds every year (from tomatoes with the traits you like the most) and regrowing them, because it should help whatever variety you're growing to adapt better to your conditions. Landracing could be even better, but you might not have room for that. :) As someone mentioned earlier, container gardening can also be great. I know someone who said she got about 100lbs of tomatoes from one Early Girl tomato plant in a container with nothing but Miracle Gro potting soil. She may have fertilized with Miracle Gro, too, but I think the only fertilizer was that which the soil came fertilized with. The problem with containers is that they can dry out fast in at least some climates. Having a narrow opening at the top may decrease evaporation (but unless your soil drains well, it may make watering take longer).