Jigg, Ah! Not often I get to answer a question with any kind of authority, but, since I moved into Philly with concrete as a backyard, and too cheap to spend big bucks on containers, I KNOW 5-gallon (and 6-gallons, if you ever get into wine making kits, and 3-gallons, if you have a cat and get your litter in a plastic container) containers! Yes, tomatoes are a first thought, and grow well in them, but, if you haen't done it yet, drill several holes in the bottom and the low sides of them, because tomatoes are water hogs, and the pots will mildew on the inside. Doesn't affect the tomatoes, except maybe that is the cause for our tomatoes to have all been an inch or two smaller then expected. (Then again, we're also both disabled, so we also can't get to sucker plucking as often as we should, which also might be the cause.) Also, another secret to remember in the future, if you've filled the bottom of the buckets with filler -- plastic bottles, cans, or styrafoam peanuts (I hope not, their a drag to deal with, when you change soil) -- before planting the tomatoes, don't. Tomatoes have deep tap roots, so they can enjoy the entire depth of the buckets. Not a problem though, since this is my first year not using those buckets for my tomatoes, and we always had plenty of tomatoes for the two of us well into the winter. One piece of advice about tomatoes though -- don't use the same soil or even the same pot for next year's tomatoes, unless you wash the pot well. (No using the same soil though, ever.) Chances are good, you'll end up with Blossom End Rot the second year. Any annual produce, herb, flower, or intersting textured plant can grow in them, assuming they can grow in our area. By now, you have to plant, instead of sow seeds, unless you go for easy to germinate seeds, like hyacinth beans or moonflowers (you'll need something big for them to grow on, like a chainlink fence, trellis or anything big for it to wind its way up.) My clematis has been growing in the same bucket with the same soil for 4 years. I'm hoping a couple of summer squash will grow in one (also needs something to grow on, since it's a vine, too), and cukes grew out of two last year. If you have way too many and plenty of room to put a whole bunch together, you can even grow corn (any variety, including popcorn), although that's a heck of a lot of cost in potting soil, and corn tends to absorb every single nutrition out of the soil, so you can't use that same soil for next year. Basically, you can grow anything in them that won't out grow them, or won't grow past three times the height of them, IF you're planting perennials. The only thing you need to remember is, since they are containers, they have to be able to survive zone 5 winters. Oh, and if you're still needing more ideas, after the gardening with them, if you have a slew of them, take a truck load to a Philly flea market, and you can sell them for $.50-$1.00 each. Enough of us need them that we're actually willing to buy them off of Dunkin Donuts and delis! LOL

::laughing:: I love the park reclamation idea! I also love kiddie pools as an easy watering system. A soaker hose costs $7.99 and a timer is maybe $10. Plus you have them for years. If you use the hose for top-watering it's way more fiddly and takes more daily monitoring than filling the pools does. But if you have the soaker and timer PLUS pools underneath, so the soaker fills the pools, it can be pretty low-maintenance. May not be worth the setup and initial tweaking, though, compared to just filling the pools by hand. BTW, don't FILL the pools :). your plants would drown. I cut holes in my pools about 2" from the bottom, which makes it easy to fill to that depth and lets excess water from rain drain out. In a humid climate, and with small containers, it's not impossible that soaker hoses without reservoirs, e.g. on the roof, could be made to work efficiently. It depends on your tolerance for messing with the system for the first few months :).

First make sure you do not use regular soil. Use potting mix. With some research you can make 5-1-1 mix for yourself if you have the components available. It would be less than half the cost of the bagged potting mix. Avoid anything that says soil for use in the buckets. It will compact, it will not drain well. Your plants may start off looking great, then they all start to look sick, then die. Ok that part is done. Now onto the what you can grow in them. Well just about darn near anything will grow in potting mix in the buckets. If you grow tomatoes in them stick with the bush types they will do great. Any peppers will do well in the buckets as well. Cuces, and squash will do fine in them. It may be helpful to put some pea gravel that covers the bottom of the pot to keep the drain holes from plugging up. Also set them on something that allows the water to drain out of the bottom without the water pooling up in them.

I think that getting a grafted tree is much better even if it is container grown. I would look for a tree grafted to a rootstock that boasted resistance to wet feet and root rot problems, It is in the winter that many people have their problems with to much/little water. I live in Cincinnati, zone 6, OH and my best 2 trees are in ground planted. My best on put on 60-80 feet of twig growth between October 2014 and May 2015. These trees are under glass in winter