Sammy,

You should divide mums every 2 to 3 years in the spring. Also, remember that you can pinch them back through about July so that they'll branch out and make shorter but fuller plants.

To replenish the soil in your containers, add compost, cow manure, a little bone meal and an organic tomato food--I like Espoma Tomato-Tone. You can use the same soil forever as long as you keep adding organic matter to replenish the nutrients that are used up by the plants and leached out by rainfall and irrigation.

There are some cut-and-come-again lettuces that have some crispness or crunchiness to them, but they won't be as crisp and crunchy as an iceberg type. I've linked some lettuce blends from Renee's Garden Seeds below. Her descriptions for each lettuce normally tell you if the types in a given blend are crunchy or crispy (or not). Summertime and Gemini are two that come to mind that are fairly crunchy, and so are many of the romaine lettuce types (though, once again, not as crispy or crunchy as iceberg). "Blush Batavians" and "Summer Bouquet" are two of her lettuce blends that she describes as crispy.

You can grow anything you want in containers provided you have enough containers. I always soay grow what you like to eat! For virtually every veggie, there is a dwarf of bush form that can be grown in containers, although some of them require containers about the size of whiskey half-barrels.

Here's some ideas:

BEANS: Contender, TopCrop, Bush Romano, Tendercrop

BEETS: Red Ace, Burpee Golden, Little Ball

BROCCOLI: Munchkin, Small Miracle

CABBAGE: Minicole, Fast Ball, Earliball

CARROTS: Thumbelina, Little Finger, Baby Spike, Gold Nugget

CHARD: any, including Bright Lights, Neon Lights, Fordhook

CHINESE CABBAGE: Bok Choy, Wong Bok

CUCUMBER: Bush Pickler, Spacemaster, Fanfare, Picklebush

EGGPLANT: virtually any, including Hansel, Gretel, Bambino or Easter Egg

LETTUCE: Cos, Buttercrunch, Mignonette, Tom Thumb, Salad Bowl

LIMA BEAN: Bush Baby Lima, Bush Lima

OKRA: Baby Bubba or Little Lucy are very small dwarf forms

PEA: any bush pea but you'd need lots of them

PEPPER: virtually any hot or sweet pepper can be grown in containers

RADISHES: any, except the large daikon winter radish types

SWEET CORN: (in a 24" container) Dwarf Jade Blue, Early Sunglow, Chires Baby Corn

SUMMER SQUASH: (in a 24" container) Croookneck, Goldrush, Peter Pan scallop

WINTER SQUASH: Bush Acorn, Butterbush, Bush Delicata

ZUCCHINI: Greyzini, Blackjack

Some people grow potatoes in grow bags or in smart pots, and neither of those are expensive containers although bagged container soilless growing mixes are a major expense.

You also can grow herbs like rosemary, basil, dill, etc. and can put several herb plants in one container.

Not many vegetables will produce as much per square foot of container space as tomatoes do, although bush winter squash, summer squash, potatoes and eggplants will give you a pretty good-sized harvest.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Rene's Garden Seeds Lettuce Blends

Spinach, Swiss chard, beets and radishes would do in pots as well as herbs like annuals arugula, basil, cilantro, dill, and parsly and perrenials oregano, sage and rosemary.

The oriental greens would also do, bokchoy, and one of the smaller napa cabbages.

A pot that size with a trellis in it would handle cucumbers.

Is your husband also allergic to garlic, because it can be grown in pots too.

A crispy lettuce would be one of the butterhead types which can be eaten before they make much of a head.

You COULD grow potatoes in a pot--or a stack of old tires, anyone else remember that?--but the main reason would be just to have a few "new" potatoes and unless you are going to also raise those peas or beans--which could be done in a big pot--you would miss out on one of the best ways to eat them.

And of course you could grow strawberries in pots.

Dawn grows more in pots than I do and I'm sure could give you more specific pointers. She will also be able to answer your question about the soil.

And Dawn posted about the time I started reading your post. I knew she would be specific.

Dorothy,

I do remember people growing potatoes in stacks of tires. Oh, lordy, my southern redneck roots are showing. LOL

And, Sammy, with a trellis, you could add one of the really small melons like Sleeping Beauty.

Also, you might want to visit the Container Forum here at Garden Web to see what other folks are growing in their containers. At this time of year, they're probably discussing indoor plants and trees more than veggies, but you probably could do a search on that forum and find some of the back threads on growing veggies in containers.

Dawn

Here is a link that might be useful: Container Forum