In a 5 gallon container you should not plant more than one of each, tomato, eggplant, cucumber, okra, pepper and squash. But you can plant maybe half a dozen beans. Actually, a 5 gal. is on the small side for tomatoes, unless it is a small DETERMINANT or dwarf type.

Hello again Villian189! I am glad that you are rethinking the size of your beds. There are many knowledgeable people on this forum and I am sure you will receive some great advice. I am happy to share what works for me. I have six 4x4 SFGs with paths wide enough to allow me to run a mower in between the gardens and kneel down at the edges of the garden and reach in to every square. I have a trellis at the north edge of most of these beds made out of 2x3s with nylon trellising for vertical plants. I have found that planting 3 vining tomatoes along the 4-foot wide trellis works best. As gblack mentioned, you will get more production from each plant if they are given the room to thrive. I do prune the tomatoes a little and weave them into the nylon trellis as they grow and also wrap them with twine to the trellis supports. The tomatoes do crowd the row of squares immediately in front of them by mid-growing season. So I plant spring greens in these squares (lettuces, arugula, spinach, etc.) before the tomatoes are planted out. If you keep the lower branches of the tomato plants trimmed, they will provide a nice shade canopy for the greens as the summer heats up. Ok, according to Mel BartholomewâÂÂs The All-new Square Foot Gardening book, suggested plant spacing for the varieties you wish to grow are as follows: Tomato plants, vine type = 1/square along a trellis Summer squash, bush type= 1 in a 9 squares (3x3 area) Winter squash, vining type = 1 in a 2 squares (1x2 area) Basil = 4/square Oregano = 1/square Cilantro = 1/square Parsley = 1/square Peppers = 1/square Eggplant = 1/square Pole beans = 8/square along a trellis Lettuce = 4/square So, if I understood your latest post correctly, you plan on building two 3x4 SFG. This will give you 24 squares to work with. In this following suggestion, I have assumed you will have a trellis along the north side of each garden along the 4-foot side. SFG 1: Back squares: 3 vining tomato plants can be planted along the north side along a trellis. Middle squares: 3 squares of greens and/or lettuces. 1 square herb. Front squares: Peppers and eggplant, they will shade out your lettuce, but it may help keep the lettuce from bolting when the weather gets warm. SFG2: Back squares: Pole beans - plant these towards the back of the bed right along the trellis and they will only take up inches of your garden space and grow vertically. Middle and Front two squares, plus extra room from the partial bean squares: 1 bush type squash (such as zucchini or yellow summer squash) Remaining squares: herbs or a pepper. This should get you started. Let me know what you think. Rachel GrafixMuse's Garden Spot Blog

Depends on the plant and the size container being used. I would not plant more than a single cuke in anything smaller than a 10G container but you can plant multiple carrots in a much smaller one (provided it is sufficiently deep).

That being said and true, some hot peppers do better than others here. I have a ghost pepper (bhut jolokia) that currently still has a pepper on it..left out and forgotten about since about August when most the other peppers died off. There have been other ghost peppers that have survived a few yrs at time, previously here. I think that one is pretty tolerant. Purple jalepenos do great for me here too, better than the green, for some reason. I usually get good harvest of habaneros before they croak If anyone in FL likes to grow a good ornamental pepper I very highly recommend Black Pearl..this little pepper has had peppers on it since last spring! Thrived in rain & humidity, went through a frost. It has purplish black foliage and black peppers that mature red. Its in the ground as an accent plant in my red and purple rose garden (dedicated to my grandmother who loved roses and those colors). Apparently, the peppers are said to be edible but super hot. "A citrus undertone with a slow burn, 12 times hotter than jalepeno," according to Park Seed. I havent tried eating one. I guess I could give one to DH and see what happens lol. The cute little flowers are purple too. DH loves the hottest peppers, I think he burned his taste buds off long ago. I can eat habanero in small doses like habanero pepper jack cheese! Yum. Mostly I stick with jalepeno so I can still taste my food lol. The big Italian grilling peppers arent that prolific for me either., darn darn! I think Sylvia can grow them though...course she can grow any veggie lol. Bell peppers suck here and grew great for me in So Cal. and AZ. Its depressing lol