Hmm, that could be an explanation too, then, because the beans were planted in the bed that is under the hose, so it would get the drip-drip every time I used the hose. Hmm... =P We live in a damp climate. Moisture can be tricky in that bed, and I am told we almost always end the season with powdery mildew (which was true for me, with the peas, squash, and cukes). Oh, I guess I should have specified that they are bush beans. The peas have a twine trellis on the fence. I did twine last year in a different spot, with stakes, and they seemed to do okay (although the trellis didn't end up being tall enough, and the top half of them fell over at the end of the season, lol). Planting in bags was recommended to me by a local. It worked well for the season, but I found that I had to retire the bag at the end of the year because it was too rootbound to be planted in again (which was contrary to what I had been told). That was a question I kept forgetting to ask. I tried to transplant a bean plant once, and it died. Are they finicky? Do I need to do anything special to give them a good chance?

For the tomato, no. It is a huge plant. Get 10 gallon or larger for best result. For the cukes you can get by with 5 gallon. For the rest it all depends on how much you want to grow, how often you want to feed and water - smaller than 5 gallons will require multiple daily waterings and at least weekly feedings. One head of romaine can easily fill a 2 or 3 gallon container. The onions could fit 4 in a 5 gallon bucket, smaller if it is shallower but wider. Several of your choices are shallow rooted so rather than deep pots consider shallower and wider types of containers Best to check out the Container Gardening forum here for more recommendations as that forum specializes in containers. Dave

I use all kinds of bottles as solar collectors and think it does make a difference in the greenhouse. I've also got Aluminet shade cloth (50%) on the greenhouse and leave it on all winter as it helps hold in the heat inside the greenhouse. In the past I used large molasses feed tubs as solar collectors, and I still have a few of them, but most of the molasses feed tubs now are out in the garden filled with soil and used to grow plants. There's still a few molasses feed tubs filled with water on the south side of the greenhouse, but most of my solar collectors are Tidy Cat cat litter buckets (I like that I can stack them on top of one another), cat litter jugs, milk cartons and 2-liter bottles. I have an exceptionally high number of those in my greenhouse, which is covered with a soft shell of 6 mm greenhouse plastic, and they really do keep it warmer. Even on a cold night with low temps in the teens, the greenhouse only drops down to 30-32 degrees. We have to go into the single digits, or have highs only in the 20s or 30s and heavy clouds, in order for my greenhouse to drop much below freezing. As long as we have a reasonable amount of sunshine, the solar collectors do a great job of keeping the greenhouse warm. I used them before we bought the Aluminet shade cloth and they didn't work as well then as they seem to now, so I think the best combination for my particular greenhouse is to have the Aluminet plus tons of solar collectors filled with water. I love using cardboard, Dorothy, but the earthworms here devour it incredibly fast, so I often put 2 thick layers, or even more thin layers of the thinner types of cardboard, on the ground beneath mulch, and the cardboard still totally disappears in just a couple of months. Luckily, by the time the cardboard has disappeared, I've got enough mulch on those areas to keep weeds from sprouting.

Hi Jim, I don't live in The City and I have never gone to this forum before. Although my setting is different out here on the East End of LI my problem is very much the same, namely collecting more plants than I can keep (indoors). And surprisingly my attempt to deal with it was very much the same. This past fall I gathered those somewhat hardy and overly large plants into my unheated garage, clumped them together and wrapped several layers of cloth around them. Hopefully come Spring at least some will have made it. It is encouraging to see that others are trying the same. Thanks for the thread. Jerry