I'm really digging (har dee har har) your progress pics! I have a black thumb and have just planted some tomatoes and basil. If they don't make it, I'll at least be able to garden vicariously through you. That hanging tomato plant is growing like crazy! Is it supposed to eventually droop down at all, or will it continue to branch upwards?

I am a little distracted by the "vegetable" tag in the strawberry pot.

I know ladybugs are supposed to eat aphids, but I have no idea how one would wrangle them to stay around the roses. (Tiny little leashes?)

I'm really digging (har dee har har) your progress pics! I have a black thumb and have just planted some tomatoes and basil. If they don't make it, I'll at least be able to garden vicariously through you. That hanging tomato plant is growing like crazy! Is it supposed to eventually droop down at all, or will it continue to branch upwards?

 

I am a little distracted by the "vegetable" tag in the strawberry pot.

 

I know ladybugs are supposed to eat aphids, but I have no idea how one would wrangle them to stay around the roses. (Tiny little leashes?)

99% of tomato varieties would be hanging down by now. What I didn't realize until I got mine home and looked it up on the interntet is that I got a fairly new type of tomato, a "dwarf indeterminate" - and that the dwarf varieties have really really thick stems, and aren't really vine-like at all. If I had gotten basically any of the other tomatoe varieties they had at home depot, yes, I would have had vines falling over the side.

Once it has tomatoes on it to weigh some of the branches dowm, I think it will settle into a fountain or umbrella shape, with the heavy stems still sticking straight up, but the branches with the tomatoes on them kind-of cuving back down.

If I ever have a house with a sunny front entrance, I would love to plant two of these in those stand-up urn type planters on either side of the doorway. I think they would look spectacularly lush, plus they have pretty flowers, and tomatoes are a nice plus too.

And yeah, the "vegetable" tag in the strawberries is silly, but honestly, I'm doubting if I'll be getting any fruit either. Damn prissy little plants.

I know people buy ladybugs to eat aphids, but I can't imagine dumping a whole handful of them on my half a dozen container plants.