Getting Back To Normal Activities

I was surprised to realize I haven't posted here for a while.  I suppose I got used to just posting about falling off the ladder and healing from it.  Well, I'm about as healed as I will ever be, so there wasn't much to say about that.  I'm walking, driving, shopping, doing household chores about like before.  The collarbone ain't ever gonna be re-attached to the shoulder bone though.  An operation is bad enough; the recovery requirements are worse.  

But I DID get back to gardening yesterday and today.  I got tomatoes and peppers started indoors  (yes, I'm late by a month).  I have 2 groups of tomatoes planted.  Some are planted normally for direct transplanting outside in 6 weeks.  

But some are planted 2 to a larger pot.  Those have an heirloom tomato and a special rootstock tomato for grafting.  I am (so far) a complete failure at grafting tomatoes but I keep trying.  The idea is that a vigorous rootstock tomato (that on its own produces poor fruits) can be topped with a less vigorous heirloom tomato with great fruits.  

The rootstock makes a larger root system, is disease resistant, and absorbs more nutrients to send up the heirloom stem.  There are 2 basic grafting methods.  One cuts off the tops of both seedlings and you clip the heirloom top to the rootstock bottom.  

The other has you shave both stems slightly and clip the shaved areas together.  That leaves both seedlings with roots for nutrients while the graft heals.  Then later, you cut the bottom of the heirloom and the top of the rootstock off, leaving one grafted plant.

Someday I will manage to get that to work.  Other people do.  I've watched youtube videos of it and they show the routine success.  They get a lot more true heirloom fruits than usual.  You can even buy them (I have 2 grafted Brandywine tomatoes on order for delivery in a couple weeks.  But they aren't cheap ($10 per plant), but they really do produce better so I REALLY want to learn how to do it myself.

I also late-planted a bunch of flowers indoors.  Some are standard ones like zinnias, marigolds, and salvia. Others are more unusual but are tall cottage-garden "self-sowers" so if I can get them established outside they might spread and shade out weeds for many years.

I have to confess that my lovely indoor lettuce garden failed while I was injured.  But that is for another post!