I did a lot of research on the concrete gardens and what I found out that it can bake the roots. I am new at this too and going to containers too. I learned from my neighbor he uses 5 gallon home depot pails for his plants. His tomato plants where huge and produced a lot of fruit. what type of containers have you used?

I have raised beds of wood 4'x8' 2' high no bottom
cedar is pretty expensive we used the new pressure treated stuff that is not harmful to vegetables. They don't put the bad chem. in them anymore. The beds ran around $28.00 for each. Green beans take up a lot of space wither bush or climbers. I buy my seeds from the dollar store(3$1.00) and they are fine. If I want something special then I will spend the money @HD. No concrete too hot. Plant seed per package directions after all frost. Picture Aug 2013 harvest

Onions around the bed parameter help with the bugs
These were harvested in June. Onion sets work best, seeds are a little hard. Walmart carries sets in Feb.

One more of the beds hope this helps

Thank you everyone!

The planters I've tried in the past were regular plastic terracotta looking pots (on my hot concrete front porch).

This may be a dumb question, but are "sets" the same as seedlings?

Thanks again!

Sets are small baby onions w/tops about the size of a pencil or smaller. Length and dia.They come tied together in a bunch w/roots exposed, usually about 40 of them. Cost around $3.00
Seedlings are in soil
PS if you buy some make sure they are not really dried out.

This post was edited by campv on Mon, Dec 2, 13 at 18:54