hortster: "ildivo, do you mean scapes or new topgrowth? I would be amazed if you see scapes that fast. "Scapes" for me occur the next spring about three or four weeks before the garlic needs harvest." I don't honestly know. There are no "flowers". I took garlic I bought in the store. My guess it that it is "common garlic". About 5 weeks ago I planted the cloves about 3" deep and 6"+ inches apart. Now, nearly every clove has two or three green scallion or spike-like growths coming up through the soil from the clove. Some are several inches high. Some of the stuff I've read indicates that I should cut the growth back at around the time of the first frost to encourage bulb growth. The stalks themselves make good salad stuff I guess (if what is read is right). I'll try to remember to post what happens. Any other thoughts would be appreciated. You all might find this link of interest: http://www.naturalhub.com/grow_vegetable_type_garlic.htm

That is a lot of work, haven't tried that yet, but it probably is much more labor & dirt fill than I imagined or would even want to tackle. I don't have room for veggies, darn, but somebody gave me a tomato so I planted it on the side of the house and stuck a cage over it, threw some partially rotted leaves on it for mulch. I've only set out my poppies so far, had 3 milk jugs of them, they looked so filled out in the jugs and now that they are in the ground, they look blah, smallish, hope they fill out, am hoping with these "plugs", they will self seed. The weather has been ideal when not too soggy soil for transplanting, overcast mostly, don't like to transplant in the sun if at all possible. I don't know about the rest of you, but I think salvia does better if you plant much later when it's warmed up some. Last year I started them in the house, but they grew crooked, had to stake them, then they did strengthen and straighten up when I finally transplanted them outside after little/no hardening off, window open w/screen was it. I notice several have commented about failures with various types of salvia. All mine have sprouted, about 6 containers of them, started them about a month ago outside where they get a little bit of sun, too hot, go to shade. I've got several KFC-type containers, the germination rate isn't great, but plenty. Tonight I want to get all my blue crystal (a lot of those) transplanted into 6 packs because I want to space them out with white zinnias I also transplanted into 6 packs for right in front. The other stuff, I will slice, dice, and plop lol. I'm waiting for it to get bigger and stronger so it can tolerate being put into the garden areas and only being watered once a day or less. If you put it in too small in a dry place, you have to mist it a lot, same if you remove the plastic lids which sometimes I have to do. I wanted to get one of those swan neck hoes, they are very expensive, and now the place online that carries the kind I wanted is out. One thing I've found that is a great help to me when I'm transplanting from 6 packs or up to 16 oz plastic cups is to use a bulb planter, makes it go a lot faster and not so hard on my back. I've got 3 now, one horrid, one if you step on it hard and twist and twist does ok, so I bought one with jaws at HD last year and a trigger release in the handle. I like that one, but sometimes wet soil gets stuck in it plus I don't think it will tear through sod without an awful struggle for naturalizing bulbs, have to use my drill and augur for that & still run into probs. Just some thoughts on a wet, cold day, my first year for ws'ing, only 10 jugs, all but one germinated but sparsely except poppies too thick. The failure was one I wanted a lot, have another pack of seeds but they may not be any good and take forever to germinate. That's why I have a packet of Russian sage sitting unopened, takes too long.

Well. The square garden has plenty of room for enough tomatoes for me. The rest of the neightbors will just have to start growing their own. The problem is that I started to move the iris last fall. Got maybe about a third of them done and ran out of time (and energy). I have the places to move them too but I forgot last fall that if I move them this spring I will loose the bloom. I am not willing to loose the bloom. So I will wait until after they bloom to move them. That means no place to plant tomatoes. I have five in pots that I just bought and then I have six straw bales placed at the head of my driveway with plenty of room to get in the garage. They have been "cooking" for weeks. That is seeded with high nitrogen fertilizer so that they start the breakdown cyle. I water them everyday. I am going to put bags of compost directly on top of the bales (laying down sideways). They cut large slits threw to the bottom side both for drainage and so the roots will be about to grow thru into the bales when the tomatoes get big later in the year. Then I will plant tomato plants two into each bag of compost. Don't laugh. Necessesity is the mother of invention.

"Tomato plants don't care what zone or even what state they are in as long as they get what they need in the way of good soil, good nutrients, time to grow, and the water they need. :) " Absolutely. There are very few vegetables that I have tried that don't work out here. Some years are better then others naturally, and there are vegetables I have never bothered with (like okra, because I don't think it would terribly well here, plus its gross haha). The only real limiting factor to our tomatoes is the season length. As I'm sure you're familiar, Bernard, some years we have frost free warm weather from April to November. Others its more like June-August. Problem I have is, even though I've lived here my whole life, I still couldn't tell you with any certainty which year it will be! So, Your best bet, I think, would be grow a short season variety and a long season variety. That is the mistake I wind up making every year. But, the good Lord willing and my seeds pop up, I am fixing that this year.