Is Anyone Else Container Gardening This Year?

I bought two dwarf Peach trees, two strawberry baskets and a flat of strawberry plants, and three tomato plants. So far.
I also bought several cubic foot bags of organic humus/compost mix and some of potting soil mix. It is pretty near impossible to find anything that does not have added stuff to help your plants grow.
Makes it hard to figure out what else to add if you are used to feeding things yourself.
I am going to cut a 55 gal drum in half for the trees, and I am going to get one of those kiddie wading pools for the strawberries.
I figure for a $200 investment I can raise most of the fruits and veges I will eat this season. Which is expensive, but the set-up is the major investment here.
I plan to grow some greens, some herbs, and get some berry canes. Those won't produce this year though.
I will post pics when I get it all done.

Because of another year of drought and the lakes (water supply) are really low, I've got 3 "planters" on my deck. I've got a large protein tub left over from feeding the cattle last winter, a regular large planter and a large metal water can - holes punched in bottom of each for drainage. Planting soil in each and I've got planted: 6 tomato plants (blossoming nicely), 2 sweet potatoes (thriving) and 2 shallots in the planters. Watering is a bit of a problem as we are restricted from doing ANY outside watering. So, we have large containers placed at the drip line around our house, bucket in the shower to catch some of that run-off and I reuse the water used to rinse off dishes for the dishwasher. So far, I've managed fine even though it's a chore - sure am looking forward to some vine-ripened tomatoes - will make all the work worthwhile.

Sun Gro makes a variety of peat-based potting mixes, including one that's just peat, perlite and a bit of lime (we use that at the nursery to start all our seedlings). Check their website for a retailer near you.

We use a variation of the Cornell mix for all our containers--60% coarse peat, 20% coarse perlite, 20% extra coarse vermiculite. We have very hard water so we don't need to add lime to the mix, but normally you would add 5# lime per cubic yard of mix.

Most of what I have planted - except for a few additions to the landscape - is in pots this time. I'm just not happy with the sand/soil/dirt area that I have to work with right now. Plus varmints are really bad the last couple of months and it helps to be able to secure my containers by bringing them onto the patio when necessary. Got a tortoise out of my herbs again and tried to explain that I wasn't providing them with a gourmet salad bar but the big ol' thing didn't seem to care about my opinion too much as it came back an hour later despite having been relocated into the orange grove two houses over.

So far tomatoes and pineapples in containers. Looking at trying out some melons in the next couple if days. Have done jalapeños in the past and worked out well. As a matter of fact still have a 2 year old jalapeño plant still producing, currently has 5 jalapeños on it now

I have a plum tree in a used 25 gal bucket I purchased from the nursery for $5. I've had the plum tree for 3 years and this year it is loaded with plums. I also used the broken top of an old wheelbarrow last year to plant strawberry plants and they came back this year and are almost ready to eat. I will be transplanting the tomatoe and zuccini plants I started from seed into the raised beds in the garden next week. I use the ACE hardware planting mix with chicken manure in it, no fake ingredients. In the raised beds I will mix some bagged composted steer manure and compost in. And as suggested on another thread, I will put in some powdered milk in the holes I plant the tomatoe plants in.

PS I have a 4 year old helper that loves to water... Also, I hire a local kid to do the initial cleanout of my raised beds and the mixing of soils.

As so often happens, one project leads to another. While trying to drill holes in a 1/4 in plastic barrel, I first had to stop and get all of Wardog's tools organized so I could find what I needed, That took a couple hours. Then I discovered that the rechargeable batteries for his power tools were all shot. Replacement cost-$100.00. Ouch. So, I have gotten the two peach trees and three tomato plants repotted and mulched. Even that was an amazing amount of work. I also put up a small greenhouse I got to start plants. Can't wait to use it. Still need to plant the strawberry flat. That will be tomorrow's project.