Container Gardens

Since we live in a townhouse, my garden is confined to our front patio. Over the next several years, I am going to try to optimize my space so I can grow us a substantial amount of food (we'll see how well this actually works). C made me a 4 x 2 x 2 foot planter in which I am attempting to grow the following:
10' tomato plant (climbs, with trellis)
2 zucchini plants
chives
wild spinach
2 regular tomato plants

So far, the spinach has done well, the chives are thriving, the zucchini plants are huge but have so far only produced 1 fruit, and my 10 foot tomato is about 2 feet tall and doesn't seem very happy. I don't think it was meant for this sort of climate. My other tomatoes are doing well and actually starting to grow a couple little fruits, so that's exciting. I had tried to grow some carrots in there too but they all died, I'm not sure what killed them.

I also have (next to my roses) two pots containing 2 pepper plants each (they seem to be getting close to making flowers), a large pot growing sugar snap peas (yum!), one pot with a tomato plant in it, and several potted flowers. The veggies are all doing well, the peas actually grew really well, then seemed to finish their crop, then died, but new pea plants began growing up just next to the old stalks, so there's a whole new crop of peas coming in now. I had no idea they would do that.

I am not sure my garden was started early enough...maybe next year I will try to get everything outside planted by the end of April, since it is now August and my garden seems to be lagging behind those of my friends and family. I did harvest the first zucchini today, though, and I am really looking forward to using it in chicken kabobs for dinner one of the next few days!

I would also really like to grow strawberries next year, and hopefully will have better success with sunflowers than this year. Mine are all scraggly and sad, I think I will have to plant them in the ground and not in a pot. I might eventually take some pictures of my garden plants, when they aren't wilty from the heat, to post here.