Hi

I'm fairly new to this form but I have experience in both planted aquariums and traditional gardening. I live in Brooklyn, NY, and I have a tiny yard.. Real tiny.

I decided to grow some vegetables this year, I hope I am not too late. I wish to use 5 gallon buckets as SWC system( I have 7 5gl buckets right now that I got for free) I want to grow tomatoes, cucumbers, eggplant, red, yellow, and green peppers. I will use HD (homedepot) varieties this year, but I hope to upgrade to more interesting ones next year.

I want to create some kind of automatic watering system. Maybe using a reservoir with a powerhead (water pump)

Questions:

1. Is it too late to grow in my area?

2. which potting soil mix, I would love to make it myself of course, should I use? I have a vermi-compost going so I have hummus available...

3. Fertilizers - which should I use?

4. Auto-system - any suggestions?

5. I wish to avoid using two buckets each for the SWC. Any good, easy, and cheap plans for doing that?

Thank you!