2 years ago I grew several different potatoes....white, red, and gold. I had 5 rows, 20' long. I hilled as much as possible. The rows looked great, but in the end, all the potatoes were near the bottom where the original seed potato started. I think it's a fantasy of mine that I can start a potato, and hill it high, and have potatoes grow up the stem. It hasn't happened yet, and this year apparantly I haven't learned because I started some container potatoes and I'm sure they are too deep. I allowed too much room for hilling. Maybe I'll just put another layer of soil over them and plant more seed potatoes on top of them.

When I was younger I worked summers at a Boyscout camp. Being an all boys camp we didn't have to worry much about heading to the latrine to pee. Every cabin had a more or less designated area nearby. We'd pick a grassy spot and for the first couple weeks the grass would grow like crazy. After about 5 or 6 weeks the vegetation in that area would get burned off and die and that spot would start to smell. It was worse in summers when we didn't get alot of rain. The proceedure at that point was to get a 5 gallon bucket of water and hose the area down, then switch to the backup spot for the last couple weeks of camp. We'd spend a total of 9 weeks there per summer. I'm not making any of that up. I'm sure different cabins delt with the problem in different ways but I stayed in 5 or 6 different cabins over 4 summers and each one worked pretty much the same.

You Alyssum is fine...cotyledons do that because they are no longer needed :D For the most part they all seem to look pretty good to me! The first scares me though somewhat given the fact the way you lost the seedlings in one single locations rather than random losses around the container. Was probably a good thing you removed the top...just in case a fungal attack was underway! For the last 5 years mine have always been in sun from start to finish or until temps are 75+. Only non-germinated ones get moved from the S.W. location and go to afternoon shade at that point. I have VERY little shade as well and normally by middle of May everything I have is planted out. Right now as it is I only have 7 containers completely topless: Mustard, Collard, Broccoli, Rudbeckia hirta, Penstemon, Golden Marguerite and one of 3 containers of Calendula with all it's seed germinated. Only thing I'm worried about now is the dips down to mid 20's were are expecting...so in come the Marigolds, Cosmos, and a single container of Brandywine Tom's. Vera

As much as they need. When the plants are small, water when the first inch or so of the top soil is dry, this could be everyday if the weather is warm or windy. As they grow, you water at greater intervals and you water deeper to encourage the roots to grow down and out - tomato roots can extend 6' except when in containers of course. If you water too much, the plants produce vegetative growth, stems and foliage. If there is any risk that their lives are going to end (stress) i.e. drought, flowers and fruit are produced. So don't make them too happy, but don't stress them so far that they can't recover. Growing them fast (lots of water and fertilizer) can lead to predatory insects, wind breakage and collapse, growing them hard (moderate water and fertilizer) leads to longer lived plants and reproduction (flowers/fruits). So, there is no substitute for daily observation and accessment of the weather and soil conditions. Also, veggies and fruit given the time to grow slowly absorb more minerals from the soil and have a higher nutritional content. Isn't that a good reason to have a home garden (good taste too)?