Michelle, Let me say up front that I don't container gardden myself. I have a huge yard so have no need to. But I've given growing in pots a lot of thought, to see if I could come up with helpful suggestions for those that do. Plants "transpire" water, their version of sweating. And just like us, the hotter they get, the more they'll "sweat." So anything you can do to keep your potted plants cooler will help. A. If you have a choice of sites, putting them where they'll get only morning sun, but afternoon shade, will help a lot. Plants really do very little growing after the temps reach the 90s anyway. B. If such a location isn't possible, then just leaning something against or wrapping something around the pots to keep them cooler will help. Remember, only the plants themselves need sun, not the pots. C. If they're available, a nice layer of grass clippings on top of the soil will keep it a lot cooler and moister between waterings. The clippngs will also prevent weeds and provide all the nutrients your plants need. Don't let them touch the stems of the plants, though, cause they could rot them. You could make small "collars" from yogurt cups to prevent that. I'd also like to make some comments on your saying that you are growing things in pots because you are "in (a) hot dry zone 8 with only sand in my yard." I've been gardening since 1972, and like all True Gardeners, I often share things with others. And several times people would say they just loved what I gave them, which would prompt me to ask why they didn't garden themselves. And more than once the response was, "Oh, we would love to, but we have such terrible soil." (Sometimes very sandy, other times heavy clay.) It took several years- I am a bit slow sometimes, lol- but I finally came to realize that many people seem to think that soil is a permanent thing. If you're lucky, you have good soil and always will. If you're unlucky, you have bad soil, and there's nothing you can do about it. Nothing of course could be futher from the truth. If you do the right thing, which is bascially Add Organic Matter to the soil continually, you can transform the worst soil in the world into the best. (I started out with HORRIBLE red clay, great raw material for making bricks or pottery. I now have the most beautiful, black, crumbly, fertile soil you could find anywhere.) And if you started out with the best soil, but didn't add organic matter year after year, it soon would become just as bad as the soil you have. I know a gardener in Michigan who has very sandy soil. He started putting his grass clippings in his garden just this year, and he can't beLEIVE how much better everthng is growing than ever before! He has more tomatoes, peppers, greenbeans, watermelon and other things than he knows what to do with. So, if you did want to grow things in good old Mom Earth, and you can get grass clippings, all you would have to do is add a good 3-inch layer on top of the soil. You don't even have to dig out any weeds that might be present first. Just trample them flat and cover them. I've turned even sections of lawn, both in my yard and in friends', to garden or flower bed simply by covering them with grass clippings. I have not the slightest doubt that you could very successfully grow anything that does well in your area in your soil, and maybe even a few things that are not supposed to do well there? If you have questions on mulching, either post them here or e-mail me. This practice has soooo many benefits that it's a shame many people don't know about it. Tyrell

Thanks for the feedback. I'm hearing from everyone that this isn't the ideal garden situation because of sunlight and the close proximity to the trees. Next year, we may relocate the garden to an area away from the trees. I'm not sure if that area gets more sunlight, I will need to evaluate that a little closer. The current spot does get quite a bit of sunlight though - the sun rises to the back right of the garden, and as it gets to the top of the sky its towards the right of the garden. I'd say it gets sun from 12-1 until about 7PM at least. At 6:30 today it was still getting direct sunlight. I have an updated picture. One tomato plant (the one behind the first row one) is slowly dying...although the first one is still growing strong. Jalapeno, squash, and cucumbers are still producing quite well. I'm keeping the jalapeno's on the plant until I notice cracking/coloring to test out the different stages and flavors. About how long until you start to notice the change in color? And we have some bell peppers starting to grow too...probably about 4 that are ping pong ball size. Here's a picture of our cucumber plant that is starting to get some yellow leaves...any idea what may be causing this? Its only started in the past week or so, but I think we need to get it figured out soon! So far, we had about 10 cucumbers, 10 squash, 5-6 tomatoes, and 3 jalapenos (although about 20 are currently growing). Happy gardening!

You are in zone 5B so get roses that are hardy enough to survive in your zone. Buck roses, Austin roses, Generosa roses, rugosa roses and some old garden roses are good ones to start with. Much rose information is availble at helpmefind.com/rose but they use the default hardiness too often. I buy mine from Roses Unlimited. Start with Earthsong, Country Dancer, Prairie Harvest, Honeysweet, Sharifa Asma, Evelyn, Charlotte, Crocus Rose, Gertrude Jekyll, Mary Rose, Tradescant, Sonia Rykiel, Mme. Paule Massad, Rose de Rescht, and Jacques Cartier. Order a copy of the latest free David Austin Catalog. It has valuable planting information as well as roses. Protect young roses from rabbits with chickenwire or hardware cloth. http://www.davidaustinroses.com/american/Cat.asp?Theme= Here is a link that might be useful: Buck Roses at Roses Unlimited

Your plans sound great! BUT be careful with granular fertilizer on the start up. Less is more... I planted 4 double knockouts May of last year. These were about the size of a Heirloom Roses baby band. Over the winter rabbits pruned so I had to prune a bit more at the end of March this year. Without thinking I threw a handful of granular fertilizer around the knockouts after I pruned. Big mistake as they got fertilizer burn and there growth has been stunted so far this year... :( I had to water to get the excess salt out of the soil. Luckily it rained for the last 4 days and the KO's are starting to show some life... Just be careful....