Re: Containers outdoors in zone 8 (newbie)
 

Awesome - Early Girl is my favorite! Wow, already bloomed.. I'm jealous. :ha:

And woot, carnivores!

Re: Containers outdoors in zone 8 (newbie)
 

That first bite after a winter of cardboard supermarket tomatoes is ecstasy!

Re: Containers outdoors in zone 8 (newbie)
 

Oh yeah. I've got a while to go yet, I think it was a month or so from flower to the first ripe tomato last year... But I'm pretty pleased. And I just noticed today that my celebrity is starting to form flower buds!

This is my second year ever actually gardening. Though I used to help my mother with her black thumb disaster of a garden sometimes, and I've had houseplants for a while. But last year's garden was really awesome, except for the peas, which got aphids and were never quite the same even after I got rid of them. This year should be even better.

Re: Containers outdoors in zone 8 (newbie)
 

That first bite of real tomato is absolutely fantastic. I miss fresh peas; the supermarket ones don't compare. Hopefully the fresh bananas (in a year or two) will be the same way...

I just got my "Patio" tomato in the ground bucket. Our balcony is so little that even the dwarf tomato looks pretty big, and it's only half grown. No buds yet.

Do you use self-watering containers?

Re: Containers outdoors in zone 8 (newbie)
 

Nope, I water everything myself. :) Don't have a hose either, the apartment doesn't have an outside faucet, so I do it with a watering can.

It's my daily commune with nature. Get up, go out to the garden, water stuff, putter about for a while, before having breakfast and starting the day.

Of course it's quite humid here, and this last week I haven't had to water a thing because the rain has done it for me. I'll have to do more once summer sets in and the rain dries up.