Garden on the brain

Three weeks ago I cut open a tomato and the seeds were sprouting inside. So of course, I planted them outside. They appeared to die as they were growing mold, but lo & behold! They live on! Then on Sunday, I found out that a certain succulent called Echeveria Amoena survived a trip from St. Augustine. I put them down and forgot about them and they grew! Ever since, I thought "I'm a farmer!" With this face:

Here are what I have so far of the tomatoes:

We have a plot that would be perfect for a garden but is now some sort of southwest style desert themed garden. There are tons of rocks and there was a cluster of aloe, which is a succulent plant with medicinal characteristics- the juice inside the leaves are a sort of burn salve!

 

I didn't realize that aloe reproduce the way they do. What I thought was maybe 5 was more like 40. I wanted to put the aloe plants in a pot, but when I started pulling them out of the ground, I felt like the midwife to Perdita in 101 Dalmatians. The end result looked like I was pulling bodies out of a burning building...

I read that this is okay for them, because the roots will grow callous and resistant to disease. I'm trying to give as many as I can away and I will try to find a place to plant some here... but I have a feeling they all won't survive. Knowing how they apparently reproduce, I can't imagine they are in short supply anywhere. I wonder how long that cluster was there... we only moved in March of this year!

Meanwhile, I've got 11 books on hold that I have to pick up from the library on gardening and the like. More on composting, succulents, herbs, and seedlings later.