Some years back living on base and not allowed veggie plants in yard, my neighbor planted a couple cucumbers in a small 1 gallon flower pot by the chain fence that seperated us right by the faucet that they left slowly dripping into the pot during the day . Crazy people I thought. Well those darn plants grew and vined the whole fence...and produced enough cucs for the whole neighborhod. Good lesson I learned. I've 200 five gallon buckets that I use, depending on what veggie has my fancy.. Last year I was asked if I could do some extra tomatoes for a CSA...sure I said and planted 50 some cherry, some reg, and 50 containers in sweet peppers. I did a 7 foot fence by our polebarn to support the tomatoes, and had the buckets on either side. I don't do 511 anymore, way too much work and Fafard (medium mix) does the same for me, I do add a slow release fertilizer(organic) plus have to water twice a day in our scorching NC summers. I harvested more tomatoes and peppers then I could use, both for the CSA, Farmers Market, our use -and we use ALOT, plus literally giving our chickens a bucket of tomatoes to eat whenever I was overwhelmed. This year I won't be doing tomatoes or peppers in containers. I need a year break....I am still so sick of tomatoes that I can't even buy a fresh one for my salad! Am still using salsas, marinera sauces, spagetti sauses, etc....from last year and have enough sweet peppers chopped and frozen to last another season! I plan on cucumbers, squashes, and eggplants this year.....

Hi ditnc, Bush beans are bred for factory farming which calls for fruiting all at once and in harvest position for a tractor.They usually are not more than 2ft tall. There is nothing wrong with them but that was the main reason for bush types. They do come a little earlier and those looking to can them may find it useful. When I don't want to shade to the north I plant bush type(speaking of snap beans). However for the most part I go with pole types because the productivity in small vertical spaces and more continuous production is more geared towards smaller garden settings. They also look spectacular with up to 15 feet worth of vine. This is my first year with pole limas.In reality I am on the edge of a climate capable of good limas. I am in a 5a so bush limas were a bit faster and I do have some Henderson's bush growing but the pole limas were spouted under a lamp and started in a green house before moving them to a trellis. The snap beans can basically feed 1 person a reasonable share of beans per square foot each week. At 2 sq feet per person it will likely overwhelm the need.I would need much more space for bush types along with staggered planting. So it can be worth it to look into pole types from my experience with snap beans.

Greetings: Last year I gave some of my extra tomato plants to my sister-in-law. Due to deer issues, she planted them in containers on her patio. Not #5 buckets but in pots of similar size. The SunSugar cherry tomatoes did great, but the heirloom slicing tomato fared poorly as all the fruit had blossom end rot. Weird as I grow both of these varieties in my garden and never have blossom end rot issues. I will conclude that it is possibly from the tomatoes being in too small a container or they were in some soil free planting mix. Just an FYI that not all tomato varieties seem to perform well in containers. Container size, soil mix and tomato variety all seem to play a factor in performance.

I hardly do container gardening. But here are a couple of basics. I wonder if you have bush or climbing bean seed? 1) If you have bush bean seed plant your seed about 1" deep and about 3-5" apart. 2) If you have pole bean(climbing) seed, then you will need to supply something for the plants to grow on. I would recommend a container of at least 5 gallons for pole beans and then only plant 2-3 seeds around some sort of support. The support can be a pole or even a string. Don't use a support which is higher than you can reach, because the vines may well go higher than that. 3) It will be important to maintain fairly constant moisture. Okay, I hope someone more versed in container gardening will drop in! George Tahlequah, OK