We grow vegetables and herbs in SWC for personal use. We are not able to grow everything we need in containers. There are some things we enjoy and which add variety to our meals that are not suitable for growing in our area. No getting away from trips to the grocer or farmer's markets for us. We have found the yield from container grown vegetables at least equal to, and mostly better than vegetables we have grown in soil in our raised garden. We usually have more than we need so have some to share, but we would need to add lots more containers if we were interested in selling extra vegetables and herbs.

Fern, last year I made up some mixed herb pots and they did very well. In a 2 gallon nursery pot I planted Italian Parsley, Summer Savory, Basil and Oregano. If you continually prune the herbs they don't outgrow their boundaries, look nice together and smells incredible. In 1 gallon nursery pots I also grew individually cinnamon basil, basil, lavender, and chili peppers. I grew a tumbling tom tomato in a raised 5 gallon nursery pot. I think growing a tomato with herbs may not work as the tomato would require more moisture than the herbs, which are best kept a bit on the drier side. If plants require the same conditions then mixing them together in a container isn't an issue. Herbs need as much sunshine and fresh air as you can give them - the tomato might begin to shade them if they were grown togther. The roots get really warm when grown in containers so (I think) it's ideal method for growing stuff that likes those conditions. Also the root structures of herbs aren't huge - at least not if they're grown just for that one season - so you don't need as big a pot as you think. Tomatoes, on the other hand, is a completely different story.

We lost a few tomatoes last year to Southern Blight and a lot of them to the neighborhood squirrels. Varieties in '10 included TN Green, Rutgers, Early Girl, Cherokee Purple, Nebraska Wedding, Lemon Boy, Roma, Jetsetter, and a few cherry varieties. In general, I focus on improving the soil. Healthy soil makes for healthy plants, and healthy plants are less susceptible to disease and pests - although of course there's only so much you can do about some! Test your soil now with a kit from your local Extension office, and you will know what you may need to add before planting your summer tomato crop. It is worth the small fee for test - you won't waste money on fertilizers you don't need, and you'll know exactly if there are some specific deficiencies. About rotation: I do rotate plant families on a 4-year rotation. After last summer's wet weather and fungi, I definitely wouldn't want any plants from this family in the same area. Some other tips that help: Last year we made tomato cages out of 150-foot roll of 10-gauge concrete reinforcing wire. These cages were great for our indeterminate plants, keeping them well off the ground. When the fungus started attacking plants, we removed low branching vines, pulled back the mulch from the bases of the vines, and the resulting air circulation at the soil level probably helped keep the fungus from spreading as quickly as it would otherwise. The only problem with the cages was where to store them all! Good luck! -TM

Dave, first I just want to say I love your posts and have learned a great deal second hand from many of your answers to questions in this forum, some of which I've put into practice. Organic toxins and the microorganisms that produce them are not at issue generally and I don't disagree with your thought there. I just make sure I eat clean and sanitary vegetables. When dealing with metals, inorganic chemical compounds and polymers and additionally some derivatives of fossil fuels that is a rather different ball of wax and are not diseases of the immune system as you are focused. Often very low concentrations of inorganic toxins can cause poisonings of various types and some accumulate. The premise that we use some inorganic salts in fertilizers automatically means anything inorganic is ok is faulty logic. Fertilizers also have grades ... for example in some applications people acidify their growing medium with sulfuric acid. Sulfuric acid is actually a plant nutrient, though it is an inorganic compound. Now, let's take that a step further. Suppose I want to acidify my soil and buy some food grade sulfuric acid. There is no problem. By the same token, what would you say if I emptied my old trucks battery into the soil "in a pinch" since I had no sulfuric acid on hand? This is an extreme example but illustrates a potentially deadly cocktail of heavy metals which are the byproduct of an industrial process. You shouldn't think of plastics like glass. Plastics are more like soups that are mixed up in a factory with a recipe only the maker knows for sure. When formed into their solid shapes they can and do absorb heavy metals and smaller inorganic chemicals. Buckets that are cheap are usually made with a percent of recycled materials. Food contact grade does not permit that - all is usually virgin, pure raw material in combination with additives if necessary, that give the plastic resin workable properties. Answering a question authoritatively to prove there is something wrong with a resin is usually impossible since the manufacturer isn't going to tell you they ground up old car battery plastic cases in the molding or extrusion of the plastic. If it is not made for food applications may be perfectly acceptable. Answering it authoritatively that it is safe however is worse, because it is based on anecdotal habits. That's why I said it comes down to personal preferences. Lead wasn't removed from paint until it started peeling off and getting into babies' food. Luckily tomatoes do well on filtering lead or there would be a lot more of it in tomato lovers’ bodies and it impairs and disrupts the development and maintenance of your nervous system. That’s just lead. The problem of course with all the epidemiological long term risks is that who is going to study the breakdown effect under every possible condition of Home Depot buckets, and don't kid yourself, but HD has no idea what their buckets are made from because most are contracted out to the highest bidder who is offshore and possibly not very concerned about what recycled material he gets and who from to make the buckets. When faced with complicated problems a natural reaction is just to ignore them and hope all is fine ��" the bucket looks new and shiny to you, right? Regulatory agencies only regulate what they are programmed to regulate. If no one has looked for it, it may just add a small boost to the incidence of cancers - for example. Also if one bucket costs $2.50 with recycled content and the other costs $3.50 and is all virgin with fewer and safer additives to meet food grade, to a casual gardener $1 may be a small insurance worth the peace of mind. On the other hand if someone has 10,000 plants to sell, that's $10,000 off the bottom line and is not a viable business decision. The plant physiology and metabolism part, like gardening varies depending on what people do, and is a huge and active field in research, but plants can uptake or metabolide producing some human toxins and appear healthy. My concerns really are not much when it comes to pots from a nursery, but I feel they really should be considered when selecting materials for irrigation barrels, recirculating systems, hydroponic reservoirs, and … container gardens … and some pots ... where the potential is to bake the plastic resin in the Sun and especially when continuously recycling nutrients such as a self-watering container, that doesn’t have frequent purging of some sort. Hands on DIYers love a bargain, and that's what recycled content plastics are. But as people age and see 1/6 of their friends dying of cancer, sometimes it is easier just to spend the $1 and feel the pride that comes with a higher-spec'ed system. Like having a glass blender cup instead of some cheaper plastic one that eventually begins to degrade ;-) I know folks who buy Bonnie Plants for $6 each, only to use cheap plastic. Meanwhile I have food contact grade buckets, pure PE, I got from a company that filled them with strawberry puree for bakeries I use @ $1 each. I would grow a tomato in a $0.25 polyethylene zebra bag before I would use a home depot bucket ;-)