To-do List: Time is running out to plant tomato seeds

There's still time to grow your own tomatoes from seed, as long as you start soon. It's fun to grow your own; plus you can grow rare varieties that you are unlikely to come across at your local nursery. Plant the seeds in containers that are at least 3 inches deep, with plenty of drainage holes in the bottom. Half-gallon milk cartons cut down to size work well. Buy seed-starter mix at your nursery and plant the seeds 1 inch apart in slightly moistened soil, 1/4 inch deep. Use a spray bottle to water the soil with a fine mist. Tomato seeds need warm roots to germinate, but prefer cool air between 60 and 70 degrees. Keep the container on a warm surface in a bright spot or 2 inches under a fluorescent light fixture. Keep misting the soil enough so it remains slightly moist. As soon as the second set of leaves appears, repot each seedling in a 4-inch pot. Fertilize with quarter-strength soluble houseplant fertilizer every seven days, and gradually acclimate your baby tomato plants to the weather until you plant them out around Mother's Day.

Don't let your forsythia turn into Mr. Hyde.

Forsythia is a Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde plant. In spring, it's all Dr. Jekyll with massive displays of cheery yellow flowers. Then one morning you'll wake up to a monstrous Mr. Hyde overtaking your garden. Keep Mr. Hyde under control by pruning soon after the blooms fade. Cut a third or more of the oldest canes to the ground. Leave the top growth alone. Cutting it back will only promote rampant sprout growth on top. If your forsythia has grown so thick that you can't get your loppers in to make a cut, it's time for drastic measures. Cut the entire shrub to an inch from the ground. Then allow only about 25 well-spaced canes to grow back, removing all the others at ground level. If you remove about a third of the canes every year from now on, hopefully, you'll never have to do battle with Mr. Hyde again.

Take steps to help reduce mummy berry on blueberry.

If the fruit on your blueberry turns creamy pink, then shrivels before ripening, followed by twig dieback, your plant most likely is under siege from a fungus called mummy berry. It's a difficult problem for blueberry growers and the incidence of this disease in the Puget Sound area seems to be increasing. This disease survives the winter on mummified berries and on dead twigs that have fallen to the ground. The best defense is to prune off any affected twigs and pluck off mummy berries remaining on the plant. Then rake up and remove any plant debris from the surrounding area. Cover the soil under and around the plant with 2 inches of fresh mulch to help prevent soil-borne fruiting bodies from spewing gazillions of spores into the air to cause new infections. Finally, if infection is severe, try constructing a clear plastic roof over your plants. The structure must be large enough to keep water from hitting the leaves, but also must remain open on the sides to allow the bees access for pollination. In theory, if the flowers and foliage stay dry during the key blooming period when infections normally occur, the fungus should be unable to gain a foothold. If the experiment works, your plants will remain disease-free all season, and either you (or the robins) will enjoy an abundance of delicious, healthy blueberries once more.