Is anyone else craving color?

In honor of Valentine's Day, I bring you the color Pink:

I've been pouring over my Seed Saver's Exchange catalog, trying to decide what to plant this spring.  I have to be very selective because I'll be planting in containers and I have very limited space.  I have it down to two tomato plants (Moonglow and Black Sea Man), a pepper (Sweet Chocolate) and Genovese Basil.  Oh, and if I can manage it, two kinds of lettuce (Forellenschuss and Yugoslavian Red).  It's killing me!  It's only the middle of February and I've got three months, at least, before I can plant anything.  How about more flowers:

In the meantime, I'll be reading and re-reading my new bible for growing veggies in containers:  The Bountiful Container.  The search is on for the perfect containers to house my summer children.  While I would love the gorgeous ceramic ones, they cost a small fortune.  Hmm, my brother owns a restaurant and he might save a couple of 5-gallon pickle buckets for me.  They'd be great for the tomatoes.  Although, the buckets are dark green and they might absorb too much heat in the sun and fry the roots.  I can get the same thing in white at the hardware store.  The basil and pepper will be happy in smaller pots that I can get just about anywhere.  Now, the lettuce, will be a little trickier.  We have rabbits around here so I'm going to need to get the lettuce off the ground.  I just had the idea of putting a couple of boards across the corners of the railing on my back deck and putting the lettuce up on the boards.  The containers don't need to be too deep and plastic storage tubs are coming to mind as possibilities.  The back is the best place for the lettuce since it gets morning sun and will be a bit cooler.  The tomatoes, pepper and basil will go in front where they'll get afternoon sun.

So what will you be planting this spring/summer?  Let me know.  Have you ever grown your own tomatoes?  You haven't really tasted a tomato unless you've gotten one picked ripe off your own plants.  If you have a square foot of space that gets at least 8 hours of sun a day, you can grow a tomato.  Trust me, you won't regret it.