Pam, You're welcome. I would be in hog heaven with all the organic matter rolling in....although maybe by the 3rd time in six months, hog heaven might not be as appealing as it once was. Could Pete take the tractor and pile up all that new mulchy stuff in long rows 2 or 3 feet tall? I suppose you'd have to let them sit a while so the salt water could leach out? Then you could pile soil on top of them, or compost, or mulch, or all three...and you'd have instant hugelkultur beds that might be available for planting for fall 2013 or spring 2014. If you build them tall enough, even after they break down, they'd be elevated enough to keep whatever is planted in them above the next storm surge line perhaps. I am cautious with above-ground hugelkutlur beds here because the copperheads and rattlers like to hide in them, but sometimes I build them below ground with only dirt on top above the grade level.. Sometimes I put them in eroded areas and just keep piling on composty stuff on top of them until eventually native plants pop up out of nowhere and I know the eroded gullies have healed. I just hate thinking of all that free mulch type material not being used. I worked in the garden all day, except I did come inside to eat lunch, and I am worn out. I bet the Mantis cultivator is more tired than I am though. It can rain all it wants tomorrow, because my work is done and my beds are ready for planting. I only uncovered one toad, as far as I know, and he wasn't hit by the tiller itself....he just kind of popped up in a raised bed when I was cultivating the soil nearby. As for Pruden's Purple? Absolutely add it! Ours were so superb last year that it made me wonder I don't plant that variety every year. Of course, I feel that way about any and every tomato that makes a return engagement to my garden after being absent for a year or two. I start asking why I ever dropped it to begin with. The answer always is the same---a lack of space. With the kind of late winter/early spring your part of the country has been having with one storm system after another rolling across the continental US headed your way, I think starting your tomatoes "late" was genius! Even if it was accidental genius. It is likely that by the time the weather calms down and your soil is dry enough for planting, your plants will be the perfect size. Sometimes I fret and worry about plants not being started on time, but it always works out just fine...leading me to believe that things tend to work out they way they were meant to work out. I experience a lot of potato and onion-planting frustration almost every year. I don't care if it hasn't rained in 3 to 6 months, rain will arrive the very day my Dixondale order arrives. I always try to get onions in the ground as much on time as possible, but the rain seems determined every year to make me plant them 2 or 3 weeks later than I should. I just try not to stress over it. Mine just finally went into the ground last week and the ground was a little wet, but not too wet. Now I am hoping that this weekend's rain doesn't delay potato planting too much. I have some planted, some chitting and some still in their bags. I figured this weekend I would get all the rest out and chitting on the sunporch (but, lol, not in the sun) while it pours down rain outside. With any luck at all, the amount of rain we receive won't be too bad and I'll be able to plant potatoes Monday or Tuesday. I don't see any numbers on the Weather Prediction Center's (new name for HPC) QPF that makes me think we'll have so much rain that I won't be able to plant. The longer I have had to wait, the more my seed potato stash has grown. I already had two reds, two russets and Yukon Gold. This week I added All Red, All Blue and Purple Majesty, so that's a total of 8 potato varieties. If I delay planting much more, I'll just keep adding more varieties....as if buying more seed potatoes somehow makes up for the fact that I haven't been able to plant them this week. I learned a lesson last year. We had a really wet fall and winter here, and I knew a huge rainstorm was approaching and I rushed, rushed, rushed to plant onions and potatoes ahead of the storm, and then we had 6" of rain in the next couple of weeks which was too much on top of all the other rain we'd already had, and many of my potatoes and onions rotted before they could grow. So, this year, the onions are in a really well-raised bed that drains well, and the potatoes are going into the raised beds on the highest point of land we have....but not until this rainy weekend is past. Rushing to beat the rain last year was a mistake, and I won't do it again. If the choice comes down to planting either onions or potatoes first, I always choose onions because their maturity is governed by daylength, over which we have no control. Potatoes, on the other hand, often give just as high of a yield if planted "late" as if planted on time---it just depends on when the soil temps reach the range where tubers stop forming. I have looked at the long-range forecasts from NCEP until I am crosseyed for the last month. I keep wanting them to change from 'hotter than normal' to 'cooler than normal'. If only wishing would make it so! I also watch the ENSO forecasts like a hawk, and at this time of the year you know that I do not even know why! It isn't like we suddenly will have an El Nino begin developing at this time of the year! lol I am laughing at myself. This summer, if we luck out and the ENSO forecast starts predicting that an El Nino will develop next winter, then at least I'd know to do all my soil prep for 2014 in autumn and to build those beds high because a wet year is likely. Looking at the ENSO update regularly only makes me crazy this year (and last year...and the year before....) because it only indicates more of what we're already having. Because NCEP offers us so little hope on the long-term forecast, I am going to plant like crazy in March, and put everything into the ground as early as the soil temperatures allow. At this point, we shouldn't have any nights get so cold that I cannot cover up plants to protect them. I feel like it will be just as important to beat the heat this spring as it was last spring, even though March this year is cooler than March was last year. I have a feeling that March will stay cool until one day, just as if someone flipped a switch, it suddenly will be too hot. I hate it when we go from too cold to too hot in one day! Dawn

Since you rooted it in water rather than in wet potting mix it will need some additional time in a container before going into the ground for best results. The adventitious roots that develop when rooted in water are a different type from the feeder roots needed to survive in the garden soil - which is why rooting cuttings is normally done in potting mix. I would suggest transplanting it into a container filled with a light potting mix or seed starting mix and kept moist for about a week to 10 days before putting it in its final home. This will allow feeder roots to develop. It will droop for a couple of days but then begin to recover and firm up. Keep it in the shade, not in the direct sun. You didn't say how big the cutting was but for future reference a smaller cutting, approx. 6" tall with all the leaves removed except for the top cluster will normally root itself well in damp mix in approx. 2 weeks and can then be planted. Many of us routinely use cuttings to expand our number of plants and you'll find many discussions here about how to' root cuttings' aka 'clones'. Dave

Well, you should have suggested that before I filled up my beds with all of those wintersown perennials last year, LOL!!! Actually, I did just dig up another corner of the lawn, and I am making it a mix of perennial herbs, perennial flowers, and a couple of shrubs. I could also see planting peppers in with the perennials, but I don't know about a six foot tomato plant in there. I'm already pushing my luck with the DH, because my vegetable garden is in the front yard! Thanks for the tip about the Harvest forum. I did lurk over there a little bit last fall when I was trying to figure out what to do with all of my pumpkins, and there were plenty of knowledgeable folks over there. I don't have a pressure canner yet, and want to try things that can be canned using the boiling water bath method, such as tomatoes, pickles, and jellies. I did receive the Ball Complete Book of Home Preserving for Christmas, so I'm looking forward to trying some of the recipes in there. Thanks again, Bonnie

Thanks everyone for all the additional info! Y'all have been great!! TETE-A-TETE ... No, I don't care if you don't shut up! I can use all the help I can get! I didn't know that if there is a dry spot on the root, in clay that it will always stay dry. And when I soak the plant, I take it out of the pot, right? I told family your suggestions and they thought y'all were saying to submerge the pot in the water. LAZY_GARDENS - Great tip about the drip tubing. Can this be found in one of those drip irrigation kits at Home Depot? KIMMQ - Love the idea of the drip ring about a tree - especially when I plant more trees in the fall! Also, your explanation about the water flow helped me understand why just amending the hole is not good. All this time I was thinking it was just the fear that the amendments would burn the roots to the plant if not well mixed. I am just finding out it had to do with drainage as much as anything! GREENMAN62 - Thanks for the tip on the banana ring! I liked your suggestion of putting it in the middle of trees! And about nitrogen producing trees, I heard that wax myrtles were like this, which happens to be what I'm planting. I originally purchased some knock outs for a flowerbed towards my curb but then right before I was going to plant, I realized it would probably be better to put some trees right there instead. Do you think the myrtles would shade it too much to plant roses too? It's been tricky because you will see some trees like wax myrtles that have tons of sun around them and others produce a ton of shade. I guess it's the angle of the sun and how much the tree has been pruned. My curb gets blasted by the sun so I didn't now if I could pull off some bushes in between or not. I've also heard the rumor that wax myrtles kill things around them and I've also heard that wax myrtles don't like certain plants around them but don't know if this is true. But, I wanted a row of small trees along my curb since my large tree was cut down and the sun beats in on my house and I have no privacy. But, I realize it's going to look really bland while those myrtles are growing. I had already carved out a beautiful flowerbed for roses and I think my neighbors were all excited I was going to plant some flowers there! It was a difficult choice and I'm still wondering if I could cheat and squeeze in a few between.