I love when a freshly planted garden looks so orderly! For me, it doesn’t stay that way but Ahhh, those early stages!!!
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We bought wood containers for planting veggies on our deck. We’ve had them for 10 years and they’re still going strong. It’s the best way to avoid dealing with deer. (I won’t use Deer Off.) A few times voles and moles have destroyed our crop.
I plant lettuces, swiss chard, spinach in these containers. I’ve tried baby eggplants too with mixed success. I have some big clay pots that I use for individual tomato plants.
We got containers from Country Casual. Teak Planters - Large Planters & Teak Wood Planter Boxes
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Those are gorgeous. Are they too high for the deer? Sort of seems like perfect munching height for them!!!
The containers are on the deck by the house, and the deer don’t come up on the deck. They are sometimes on the grass by the steps going up, but as far as I know they don’t go up to the containers.
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Our freaking deer come on our deck! 
I was completely shocked when I saw the destruction they left once… We now have gates and barriers to keep them away!
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I put in 60 broccoli plants two weeks ago and had to protect them from two freezing nights (not frost, but freeze). Today we got up extra early so I could water them and then clip shade covers (aka old sheets) over them because it will be nearly 90. How do I plan for this?!?!
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I picked a cup of mulberries yesterday evening off of our everbearing mulberry bush/tree. Put the container in the fridge. Somebody ATE THEM ALL! What the heck. I was going to use those for cocktails on graduation day! DANG IT!
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Wow–your deer are braver than the ones in my yard!! Our neighbors have a large dog and if he’s outside he barks at the deer, which scares them away. I think his barking has kept the deer from other parts of our garden. We also try to plant as many deer resistant plants as we can.
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Here in Illinois we are awaiting invasion of both 17 year and 13 year cicadas. Don’t expect to be using our outdoor space much until they are gone. I’m a little worried about my hydrangeas- we have about a dozen that we planted 12 years ago- so didn’t have them here last invasion. Anyone have experience? We netted a small oak tree but everything else on our property is very mature and withstood past invasions.
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We get cicadas here in AZ every summer! Often in July-August.
Cicadas are also a part of summer here but not to the degree you are expecting!! I don’t know the answer - will they cause damage to plants??? (all I know is it’s gross when finding their shells!)
I agree on the shells:(
It’s the 2 broods at once - in the past our trees have been completely covered in them - the entryway to our house was as well and the garden, fence etc. literally thousands in just my backyard. A google search said hydrangeas could be affected, they like the wood, that’s where they lay eggs. So many young trees are netted now in our neighborhood but haven’t seen any shrubs or plants with netting. I just love hydrangeas and enjoy entertaining in my backyard when they are in full bloom.
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Gosh that is a lot to think of all those young trees nettled - and thousands of them. 
I mean, hydrangeas are precious and I can understand your concern!
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Me this time of year…
I worked my community garden plant sale on Saturday. Wow, the plants looked AMAZING. Won’t probably get to planting till weekend of the 18th unless I get time on Mother’s Day. I bought 4-5 different tomatoes, shishito peppers, poblano peppers, and I have jalapeno and kale plants at home ready to go in the ground. I also was gifted some cucamelon seeds (mouse melon?) that I am SO eager to try for something new. A novelty but they vine so should be fun to try.
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We stopped at the local nursery on Sunday. They get so busy on weekends that they had two or three yellow-vested traffic directors.
Cars are for plants, not people, right? Whatcha got there?!!
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5 rhodies and 2 clematis! 
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Just got my tomato plants into containers this past weekend. 3 are looking okay, but one looks like it might be going through transplant shock - I’m hoping it will recover. Question: do I need to add mulch to the containers? And if so, what type do you recommend?
I have never mulched the tomatoes that I grow in containers. For the tomatoes that I grow in the vegetable garden, I only mulch them to keep the weeds down, if you can call black plastic “mulch”.
I have seen some tomatoes go through quite a bit of transplant shock and recover. The most extreme case of this that I can remember was a long time ago when after planting tomatoes out in the garden I discovered relatively early in the morning the next day that cutworms had cut off the top of my tomato plants. One “top of plant” with no roots at all looked okay so I just stuck it in the ground. It looked wilted for a few days, but recovered and did fine (and made tomatoes). A few days of mild and/or cloudy weather might have helped it.
On a related note, many years ago some friends helped me move apartments. A couple of days later I noted that one plant looked wilted so I moved it to a different location. It seemed to like its new location better so I just left it there as it recovered and did well. About three weeks after the move I had a friend over for dinner partly to thank him for helping me move. He looked at the once again healthy plant and looked shocked. I asked “what is the matter?”. He explained that in helping me move he had accidentally broken off the plant at the soil line. He was too embarrassed to tell me so he had just poked a hole in the soil and stuck the plant back into the hole.
I would not give up on the wilted tomato quite yet.
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