I don't know hot peppers at all, so can't help you there. I'm a little concerned that you don't have flowers yet on your cherry tomato. I'm 1.5 zones above you and we're starting to get flowers on all four varieties of tomatoes (grapes, patios, and two varieties of large tomatoes - so no cherry tomatoes to compare with.) I'm not sure what you can do about that other than wait and see. It looks good. Also, and this is probably nothing, but just in case, pull your Bonnie plants away from other tomatoes or peppers of any kind, if you're on the East Coast. Bonnie got hit with late blight a few years ago, it got worse the following year, and we've avoided them for the last two years, so I haven't kept up with if that problem is over. If you pull them away from other plants enough that they never touch, if the disease is still showing up, at least it can't spread to the other plants. (We didn't know, until it was too late, and the tomato with late blight touched a sweet pepper which touched the next and next and then on to the next two containers of tomatoes - wiping out our crop of both peppers and tomatoes for the second half of the season.) Just something to keep an eye open about. If you know the possibility is there, it might just keep it down to only one plant being affected. (And better chance that they resolved the issue.) And, again, the tomato probably should be flowering by now, so I don't know what you can do with yours doing nothing still. It looks like it's in good condition, so I doubt it's anything you've done wrong.

I have tomatoes on a trellis almost up to the roof. They were planted from seed last fall. Yesterday I saw little tiny worms on them so I am trying spraying with lemon dish soap - Just a little smig in a spray container with water. I am going to try and see how long I can keep them going. They look so pretty on the trellis. I have tomatoes in another garden (from saved seed again) that are doing fine so far. However the watermelon and cantalope near them have what looks like aphids. I am spraying the aphids with neem and lemon soap mixed. Spraying is a pain because those bugs are smart and stay on the under side of the leaves so they are hard to get to. My stuff has so many leaves that I really can't get all of them. My past experience with this organic spraying is that you have to keep doing it every few days because even if you get all the bugs (which I don't) more will hatch. And of course I pick off the leaves that are really infected. But I overcame bugs earlier with my potatoes and strawberries this way so I am hoping.

Hi Kerry, I live in Helena. I'm an avid perennial gardener but haven't done any vegie gardening in Helena. There's a Farmer's Market here. It's already opened. The selection is somewhat limited, IMO, but gets better as the season progresses. You may be able to find tomato plants there now (most likely), or you might want to try Valley Farms. You're on the right track with cherry tomatoes. The season is really too short for anything else. It's also too early to put tomotoes out. Wait until June. By the way, the soil here tends to be alkaline as does the water, so amend accordingly, and happy gardening. Lauren

I ended up with a cherry fort - not a maze. The signif other decided to downsize the whole deal... so I ended up with a 10 X 10 area. We were starting with lawn... So I planted a tomato every 6-8 inches. I know inches... I put in: Gajo De Melon Suncherry red star sungold green doctors zebra cherry black cherry snow white Riesentraube OSU Blue Oh heavens, I'll have to go home and check again... there were others... I got a lot of people who wanted to donate seed, so I took them up on them and added them to the 'fort'. I have to take recent pictures, but this is what it looked like early on. I haven't been gung-ho on documenting this because I didn't want to document a complete failure if it happened... :) Then I went back to the original farm (without my camera) this weekend and they have extended their tomato maze - lots more varieties and much bigger this year... I will bring the camera next time I go. Again they told the kids "come back with your basket and belly full." SO cute and SO gets them excited about gardening. I want that!!! I'll take pictures tonight and post them tonight or tomorrow.