Should I or Shouldn't I?

 I really was planning on setting out my indeterminant tomato plants today but I am still on the fence about it.  They really aren't happy in their pots.  The soil is obviously not to their liking as evidenced by the yellowing lower leaves and they would do well to go out in the raised bed.  But the forecast has come in for next week, and it will be highs of mid-50s and lows in the low 40s.  The garden is warmer than that because of all of the surrounding gravel, but I would still want to cover the plants with frost cloth to create a greenhouse effect and I'm thinking they could do without the additional shock of transplanting with cold nights coming.

The indeterminant tomatoes have been a bit of a battle this spring.  I blame it on the Pro-Mix potting mix I used to bump them from seed starter to regular growing conditions.  It was the same brand I usually use, but it came out of the bags unusually moist and it held too much moisture even when in the open air.  The tray below was extremely unhappy.  I transplanted them when they had their first leaves and they completely stalled and even began to die off because their roots were rotting so I went ahead and moved them out of their cells into 4" pots and I used some old reclaimed potting mix and added Tomato-Tone.  It took about a week for them to take hold and I lost a few more in the process, but around the time they were able to take full sun all day, they decided to live and grow and are looking pretty good at this point.  This is because I can get their soil dried out each day before I water them again.  It was really touch and go for awhile.  I am going to have to try a different brand next year.  My micro and dwarf tomatoes are on a different schedule and did not seem to have a problem with the soil.  They are already acclimated to the garden and are sheltered under a frost cloth to moderate the temperatures.

I finally got around to putting shredded leaves in the cole crop bed.  Everything is growing well.

I have been setting out annuals just to get them out of their nursery cells.  I am waiting for the Daffodil foliage to die back a bit in the corners of this bed but I started planting some of them around the pear tree.  The plan is white Marigolds and blue Ageratum in the same pattern I did two years ago. 

It's always aggravating to come out in the morning and see that a racoon or skunk has lifted the Marigolds.  This is with both granular and spray on repellant.  It must have happened just at dawn because the plants hadn't even wilted yet.  Why is it always the Marigolds?  I have some spares, but this can't be happening every night.

The Coleus I propagated over the winter are doing well.

I have a very specific color scheme for these two Dahlia beds.  The closer one has the red, white and pink shaded Dahlias and is edged with white Marigolds alternating with hot pink Celosia.  The farther bed has the copper, orange, bronze shades of Dahlias and is edged with yellow Marigolds and hot shades of Celosia.  You can see that I pinned wire cloches over the more expensive Dahlia tubers to keep them from being dug up.  One thing I do with the Dahlia beds is I prepare the soil with urea for fertilizer instead of a mixture of bone meal and blood meal.  This is less attractive to coons and skunks, and while they may want to investigate the fresh soil, at least they are not looking for the source of blood and bone smells.

It is almost time to begin braiding and moving Daffodils.  Below is a situation I created two years ago and am finally ready to deal with.  The Daffodils were there first and I planted the Heuchera in summer when the Daffodils were not visible.  The Heuchera must be protected over winter so the Daffodil bulbs need to come outta there.  When they begin to yellow I will dig them and relocate them..

In the mean time, this is how I deal with unruly Daffodil foliage.  If I need to plant something nearby, the foliage gets braided so it can go on soaking up energy for next year.