I am a bit late on this. You can start fertilizing the tomatoes if they look doing good and not stressed after the transplant. I am sort of against any contraptions such as weed guard. It does not really help and in the longer run they are a pain. You should be fine with your raised beds on mulch. A weed here and there is OK. A while back someone told me this: you have two pile of dirt - one with weed and one without - which one you will select. The answer is the one with the weed since the other pile is so bad that even weed does not want to grow in that. Anyway, that is just an anecdote.

Hello, dahlialady! Welcome to the forum! Soil questions are heavy around here, for many reasons. Our differing climates, range of available materials and varying results over time make it almost impossible to say, "This is the mix that will work for you." I can just FEEL my friends hovering over this one like a day-old donut... I'll bite, since your bait is so delicious to me. Any succulent mix needs to be well draining. Every "Cactus Mix" I've tried has been too rich, not enough drainage, too much bark. Here's something it took me too long to figure out... bark is bad! It's still decomposing, too hot, roots don't like it. I don't even bother with cactus mix anymore. I'm going to give you my formula for mesemb mix which is a greenhouse mix intended for controlled use of water. I'll then explain the difference between that and my outdoor mix. You must keep in mind that I live in a very moderate part of southern CA. Nothing freezes here. I start with Miracle Grow moisture control mix... What???... I know! It blows my mind too! It turns out it just has a nice mixture of peat and forest products, light fert and other components too tricky to find and measure yourself. Plus, it's very nicely mixed/fluffed up and it has very little bark. I sift it at 1/4" to get the bigger chunks of bark out. This also makes sure all the peat is broken up. To this, I add: washed sand - about 1/3 the amount of potting soil vermiculite - about 1/4 the amount of sand The sand and vermiculite have their own qualities but what they do in a simple sense is cut down the ratio of organics/inorganics in your fines. All my fines are together now. I like to mix them very well at this stage, thoroughly amalgamated. I then add Perlite and Volcanic Pumice to equal about 1/2 of the entire mix. I use more Perlite than Pumice - 3 parts Perlite to 1 part Pumice or 75/25, maybe 70/30. Mix all that up and you have it! Plants that are grown in greenhouse conditions where they get plenty of light to transpire their water and watering is controlled, do very well with this mix. Outdoor plants, Indoor plants, or plants that have been accidentally overwatered do not do so well with this mix. It's still well draining but stays wet too long for shady or rainy conditions. Don't worry! I didn't make you read that for nothing! All it needs to become outdoor mix is more drainage which just means a bit more Perlite and Pumice. I would call it about 65% grit, 35% fines. There are other things people use for grit like turface "chicken grit", coarse vermiculite, scoria... you use what you can find. If anybody has any other thoughts on soil, feel free to jump in... I'm about done. I'm not going to jump on the defense if anyone disagrees so have at it :) I'm glad you found a Pleios 'Royal Flush', beautiful plant. If you haven't already, remove all of the old soil with the hose. Remove the fine hairlike roots. Don't be afraid, just pull them off with your fingernails, they will be damaged anyway. Let it dry out for a day and then pot it in the mesemb mix or something like it. Mesembs generally do not grow well in too gritty of a mix and they love sand. Put it outside but in the shade, maybe under a table, for about a week before you increase light. I usually use a couple stages of increased light over the next week until the plant is in it's final position. Mist on the 2nd or 3rd day after transplanting, give it a good watering on a hot day once you get it in the sun. Pleiospilos can take lots of light, growing nice and compact with good coloring. Not full sun but maybe 75%? Water when outer leaves are absorbed. Water when the inner leaves feel soft. Decrease watering when plant is splitting as it is consuming the outer leaves. They still need mist and a periodic drink, though... don't want to kill the roots. When the old leaves are obviously on their way out (you can tell they would not plump up again if you were to water) then you can give the roots a good drink, you will be itching to by then. Oh, man... I have stuff to do. Good luck!

Russ, good eye. Yes it was a suffruticosa frosty spears. It was a bit darker than what people show as FS. It came from Grigsby's so I have no reason to question the name though. I had to give all of my plants away three years ago. The best trick to being a good grower is don't show pictures of your failures. ;) Really the best trick is to know what grows well for you and concentrate on that. Next O it would be really worth it to go to the SLO show. You could say hi to Nick from Grow for me. Richard Rowe, my pottery guy would also be there.

Thank you breathnez for mentioning pumice...free shipping, can't go wrong. I'll definitely be ordering a bag today. Stupid question though, would the pumice be mixed with a little soil too? If so, what would be a good ratio for Succulents? Rina, I don't mind the questions. One thing I have learned for spending lots of times on forums is that everyone does things just a little differently, and we each have our favorite methods, depending on the availability of different media. For my other Succulents, I will most likely be using the pumice and soil (which is a cactus/succulent blend containing Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss, Reed Sedge Peat, Perlite, Sand and Limestone). It was to this mix I added extra perlite and scant amount of sand to my Jade. Drainage test was very good, but I want better. There was no other reason why I used this except that I already had these ingredients on hand. I'll be ordering the pumice this morning and then awaiting proper ratio to mix it with the soil. Hope you two can help me out with this! :) Thanks! Additional: lol, just ordered the pumice, but now I am thinking of purchasing gritty mix and pine bark also to add to the mix. This will allow me to still use a little of the cactus blend, and add more goodies for extra drainage! http://www.bonsaijack.com/2-Gallons-Bonsai-Succulent-and-Cactus-Soil-Gritty-Mix-111-462-cu-in-pH-55_p_161.html Looks like there's pumice in this already, so now I am really confusing myself here. Still wondering if I'll need to add to some of the cactus blend to any of these final mixtures. Think I will go cancel the pumice and just get the above gritty mix. hummmmm I just don't want to keep repotting everytime I get a new idea...this is so stressful for the plants!