Mike, I had two 50 ft. lengths of drip hoses wound in, out and around the plants with mulch covering them - all throughout the garden in the veggie garden. The mulch was piled on 8 inches thick or thicker under and around them. I put covers over the tomatoes in late July through August. I have good well water, so no chlorine that can damage plants. Notwithstanding all that I did, when temps reached 110-120, everything just turned brown, and then blister beetles ate what was left. I had tall, dark green, beautiful corn plants with 2-3 huge ears on each plant, but upon checking them, they had few developed kernels. Total loss. I planted more than one hundred tomatoes (seven varieties), corn, beans, cantaloupe, watermelon, bell peppers, three types of hot peppers, Red bells, zucchini, and onions. Normally I get enough to can, freeze, eat fresh and sell at the Farmer's Market & Health Food stores and still have enough to donate to the Food Bank. Not last year. The only tomatoes I got were a handful from the plants I grew in large pots, but only a few. They were sure good though. Cherokee Purples were especially yummy and the Lemon Boys. I think I got about 20 tomatoes altogether. I got more than everyone else around here. Their plants kicked it in June and July. I did get some okra from the plants in the smaller, lower garden and a few pitifully small Early Girl tomatoes, and a pretty good harvest of Jalapenos in September when it cooled down a bit, but that was all. I put so much work into it and expense. But it was just too hot. It was like standing inside a furnace ever day. I lost several small trees, one large weeping willow and several Eponymous shrubs. And what the heat didn't kill, the voles did, chewing the roots off several of my roses. What a horrible year! Sorry to go on about it...

It's very similar looking to the papaya and is more cold tolerant but must still be protected from frost. It's a high altitude plant but did very well in the heat over the summer here. The taste is supposed to be a bit different, milder then a regular papaya, with hints of strawberry and pineapple. The mature fruit is 8-12" long and has a pentagonal shape. The skin is also edible. It turns from green to yellow when ripe. It does produce side shoots which are removed except for 1 that you allow to grow to replace the main stem after a few years. The old stem can then be removed and cut into sections for rooting. I'm actually rooting one now and it seems to be fairly easy to do. My fruit was about 9" when I knocked it off and still very green. I cut it open and the flesh was white. At that point it had almost no taste. Hopefully I'll get to try one this year. I got mine from CA. I think that's about the only place they are widely available. I've seen them on Ebay from one seller and he was getting up to $100 for a cutting!!! I got 2, one from a friend that sent me a cutting and the other a different friend picked up at a nursey for under $20 for a 1 gal plant, both from CA.

I've been growing icebox size watermelon (sugar baby and its hybrid cousin tiger baby) in a 25-gallon half whiskey barrel for the past five years, and it works well in my situation. I plant my seeds indoors and transplant them very gently when they have just formed their first true leaves and daytime temperatures are reliably above 70. I've grown four or five plants in the barrel and gotten an average of two watermelons for each plant. I did try trellissing them, but as soon as I see the melons begin to form, I gently rearrange the vines so the fruit is resting on the ground or some sturdy platform. The vines still range over the trellis, which is very pretty, but eventually they climb out of the pot and extend a few feet out from it on the ground. My melons are usually around five pounds, which may be a little smaller than ones grown in the ground, but they are so sweet and clean. The planting mix I've been using is the 5-1-1 they talk about in the Container forum. It's five parts pine bark fines to one part each perlite and peat moss. My situation may not be ideal, but I can't grow melons in the ground, and this works well for my small family. Here's a photo from last July. And here's one from June, a year earlier:

Since I just moved down here I'm at a disadvantage of not knowing a single person so I have no idea what market would be best? I originally wanted to sell straight to market where I load the fruit and drop it off for a pay check but started finding out that they don't pay enough. Then I thought of a U-pick but don't think I can make $30,000 on 1-3 acres where I'm at. Then I thought about a green house but not sure what to plant that would make the most money with the littlest effort. I'm closer to my retirement and don't want to start a new 40 hr a week cut throat business, just trying to figure a way of making a profit of $30,000 a year. I don't think I want to sell to restaurants, seems like to much work and competition and I'm not really a sale person. I'm going to spend the next year going to markets and u-picks exploring options. Just trying to figure out if a high tower is worth the money.