There's no lack of support here! I'm in zone 5, and I'd be more than happy to help! There are many good points to gardening in the north, and a few bad ones... but aside from our cold winters, which are good for growing plants that require a cold dormancy, the other seasons are wonderful! Let us know when you get to zone 5, and we'll be here to help! I have rather shallow raised beds for veggies... I grow bush green beans, short carrots, tomatoes, pea pods, zucchini, cucumbers, onions, peppers, okra... you name it! Just remember that the edges, especially, will dry out faster... keep an eye on moisture content. It's entirely possible to grow kind of shallow... the roots simply go in a different direction under the soil, spreading out horizontally rather than growing quite so vertically.

Hi all, About 2 and one-half hours to go - the deadline for posting is almost upon us! Deadline to post containers for Zone Wars: 11:59 pm (23:59) tonight! (Eastern Daylight Time) That's what Terrene has previously announced. Please note that Gardenweb uses Eastern Daylight Time (Summer Time) for the date and time stamp. Any post dated Wednesday, May 2 does NOT count as we want to wrap this up and announce the winners! You can see the date and time that will be on your post when you take "Preview Message." It's at the end of the line with your screenname. Terrene has asked me to sort the spreadsheet and announce winners in various categories based on the sort. Exciting. Here is a link to a clock showing different time zones. You can check how your local time differs from Eastern Time used in Boston, New York, or other cities in that time zone. Thanks to everyone for your hard work and for a fun competition. See you later! Cities listed on link - Boston/New York vs Chicago/Dallas vs Denver/Salt Lake City vs San Francisco/Seattle Here is a link that might be useful: Clock with time zones

With a small suburban garden and over 150+ varieties in our collection I also had to be creative. Since my husband likes the larger varieties and I still enjoy my perennial gardens we have had to elevate and place the 75 containers in interesting spots. Most are elevated and like you Mark we place them in large 15 to 20 gallon containers. Like Wendy we do keep them in a garage in winter. We bring them in just before Christmas and place them side by side. Never stack. Depending on weather they need to thaw slowly because spring rains can create rot if not thawed. I find that the large varieties grow larger. We've been doing this for 10 years with little loss. I have tried tipping some last year and it seems to work. I may do more of that this year because it is a chore to bring those babies in for the winter! Some that I have loss seems to be ones that I planted late in the season. Not sure why that is. But all in all I believe we've only lost 6 in the past 10 years...and they were replaced. If what your doing works keep doing it. The plus is when you have an empty spot in the garden you can just place a nice container in and enjoy it's beauty.

Hey everyone - I have a brown turkey fig I got from a garden center in May - it was on a partly sunny porch in its original container and was re-potted into a larger container - it was very happy and green and producing new leaves so fast , I never pinched or pruned bc I had read mixed reviews about it , I even had 3 baby figs pop up in early July that were growing fast and then suddenly stopped - recently I moved and the fig tree is now in full sun , south facing - the tree is still growing new leaves but they aren't as green as they were when they were small but they are slightly larger than the leaves that are lower than them - they are slightly yellow and I've been trying to keep up my watering we have very hot summers and I've read container figs need lots of water - also the fig is starting to get so heavy it is drooping - I guess my question is - what to do now ?! Prune / pinch the actual fruit to let it concentrate on leaves ? Any advice greatly appreciated - First days on the porch - first fruit Fig tree now ( figs are towards the bottom )