Sorry for all the bad info you were given and the wasted $$$ it has cost you and now the many problems you'll have to deal with. Is the Garden Soil a bad idea in containers? Definitely. It compacts badly, drains poorly and leads to plant root rot. Thus the warning on the bag. You'll find many discussions about the other problems it causes over on the Growing Tomatoes forum and the Container Gardening forum here. You'll also find many discussions there about all the issues of trying to grow upside down. It is a passing fad at best and a bad one. While the Celebrity 'might' do ok in a proper sized container of 10-12 gallons and right side up and the Big Beef will need a container of at least a 12-15 gallons for success, the Sun Gold is a HUGE plant - by far the biggest of the varieties you have as it often reaches 4-5' in width and 8-10' tall. It seldom does well in even a 1/2 whiskey barrel sized container without a great deal of extra work and care and feeding. Next year stick with varieties that are bred specifically for growing in containers. There are many of them available. Your plants are young enough and small enough that they can still be transplanted into a proper container mix and proper containers and do well IF you want to invest the money in making the needed changes. Good luck. Dave

I'm far from a Guru but I have a 2,000+ gal Koi pond. My wife loves Goldfish so we added a dozen about 10 years ago. Every year we have to give away at least 100, sometimes 200, to a friend with a 4 acre pond. I'm sure it is a treat for his game fish but we can't have that many and expect them, or the Koi, to get very large. It is a challenge to catch them a couple times a year. I guess we keep 15 to 20 of the largest (about 7"). Depends on how big you want them to grow. We never had a problem until early this Spring, when a Great Blue Heron visited the pond on a weekend we were away (was there when we returned). It took 5 of the 6 Koi ranging from 12 to 18 inches as well as all but 4 Goldfish. Those 4 Goldfish quickly reproduced at least 50 to 75 little ones. I'm going to have to buy more Koi. I used a net that I have for our grapes on the water a couple months. Haven't seen the heron but I suspect it will likely show up again.

My plants are being pruned to 3 stems and they are showing the same flower suckers. I may leave a few leaves of this sucker intact for shade purposes, but otherwise I prune it to stop it. I have also noticed that some of the main stems break into two main stems, and by the time I notice it, both stems have a flower cluster, which makes it hard to decide which one to keep and which one to grow out. So I have been keeping the "sucker" stem but only to right after the flower stem. Maybe leave a couple leaves for shade. This way I get that extra cluster of flowers, but it will not grow any more after that.

It does indeed help with my long term planning as this has been a major concern - I have to move to be able to afford to purchase a home, but moving means new employment - same industry, but new employment nonetheless. But knowing that the FHA loan application will consider that I am remaining a teacher, will consider that my income will be reduced but so will the cost of living makes this plan seem ever so much more possible.