Patio Container Garden

As some of you know, I'm currently living in an apartment. At one time, my family was given the okay to plant whatever we want in the garden bed next to our apartment as long as we maintain so last year we grew lots of cucumbers, some tomatoes that didn't do well because of the hot, dry weather.. lettuce, mint, wheat, and flowers. This year we wanted to plant more stuff so we made the bed bigger and started lots of seeds really early. Things were looking good until the management hired an outside landscaper who had no idea what anything was so he hoed up many of our plants. Goodbye lettuce and elderberry bush! A few lovely plants made it through the ransacking, but this made me think twice about planting veggies in the bed. I have resorted to primarily using containers on the patio...

And it's a struggle.

Please excuse my nighttime iPhone photography (no flash). These tomato plants are doing GREAT. On the right we have Chocolate Cherry and the left is a Goliath.

Besides the tomatoes though, most things are having a hard time. I'm very new to container gardening and I definitely did not use the right mix of soil. To start, I used straight COW MANURE and nothing else... it seems I was a little off my rocker that day. Since then I have amended many things with sand so they are 50/50 sand/cow manure. Yet most plants still look a little down. The only fertilizers I like to use are those that come from real sources like bone meal, kelp, etc. I haven't invested in any yet, but I have inquired at my local feed store. Should check back in with them. I have made one revelation and it is seaweed :

Above you will see my jar of seaweed! At night I put a handful of seaweed in the jar, let it steep like a tea overnight and in the morning I have nutrient dense seaweed water to feed my plants with! I feel like this is definitely helping, but I still need to amend the soil a bit.

Anyone have experience with container gardening and want to share some tips??

Love - Desiree