You probably saw weird red things around some of my plants in the My Container Garden post from awhile back. They're called Walls-o-Water, Walls-of-Water, or even Tomato Teepees. My tomatoes grew from seeds crazy fast, and desperately needed to go outside. I was worried about them because the nighttime temperatures were still in the low 40s. So, my Mom told me about these Walls that my Dad had gotten and how they worked really well. I ordered a set of them online that night, and went ahead and transplanted the four strongest plants into their outdoor containers. The Walls showed up about a week after my poor tomatoes had been stuck outside. I only had 3 of them, so I put one around the two strongest tomato plants (the other ones were "backup" in case something went terribly wrong) and one around my peppers.Last night, Jeff and I moved the Walls to the sad backup tomato plants so we could stake the two that had been in the Walls. They were growing out the top and were doing great. Check out the difference between tomatoes that grew without the Walls, and the ones that did. I'm sold!
No walls.
Walls!Impressive, right? : )
It's official! My container garden has taken over our front steps and walkway!
Hanging on the railings are baskets with Snapdragons, Impatiens, & Lobelia. The two planters in the back on each side of the door have peas. The two planters in front on each side of the door have greenbeans that I planted over the weekend. 
The white barrel planter closest to the steps is a Better Boy tomato, the one in front is an Early Girl. The rectangle planter in front has jalapeno and cherry peppers. The other two terra cotta planters have backup tomatoes in them (in case I killed the other ones), and the random sad black planter will be explained below. : )
The peas are a variety called Survivor, which means they're supposed to be good for tough conditions. Such as being planted in crowded fashion into containers on the front steps of a north-facing townhome. Unfortunately, I don't know if I'm impressed with them. Obviously, the first set of planters did pretty well. But the planters that I did a couple weeks later didn't sprout many peas. I popped the last of my peas in the ground this past weekend, so cross your fingers that they sprout!
Here's one of my tomatoes hanging out in a spiffy wall-o-water (that's for a later post). They're pretty happy so far!
The planter of peppers also gets a wall-o-water around some of the luckier plants (they didn't all fit). I'm currently clueless as to which ones are which, because I got confused while planting them. And just when I'd figured it out, I rotated the planter so it could get more sun and confused myself again. They'll be a surprise for later this summer. ; )
Here are the window baskets on the railing. Aren't they happy?
Here's my sad planter. I started some Gerber Daisies from seed, which is supposed to be hard to do. They were doing great! I transplanted them outside into my window boxes on the railings when they got big enough and the weather was nice enough. And two days later it hailed and shredded their little leaves. : ( I decided to give up on them, and to replant the window boxes (with the Snapdragons, Impatiens, & Lobelia). But, I planned poorly and had two extra Lobeila. So I decided to stick them in this pot. And then I was sad, because I just couldn't completely give up on my daisies. I decided to stick them in with the Lobelia, too. I hope they end up happy!
