Violet, i'm sure rick knows how to do a google search...... Rick, bush beans are green bean plants that stay low to the ground as opposed to vining up 6+ feet, like pole beans. they also yield one or maybe two harvests per season, as opposed to pole beans, which produce continuously through the summer. i personally think pole beans taste better (and are prettier, because of the constant flowering), but that's just my opinion. my raised beds are twice as deep as yours.......do yours have a hard bottom, or are they sitting on top of dirt? in other words, do the roots have someplace to go other than the 6" depth of the raised bed? you could grow globe radishes, short n' sweet carrots, beets for the greens, leaf lettuce, peas....althought it might be a little hot for peas/radishes in zone 9......cucumbers have always been a no-brainer with high yields for me as well, that might be something to try. this year i'm have burpee's bushmaster to save space. you could probably grow whatever you wanted, but if the bed is truly 6" deep, if it's a box sitting on your driveway or something, plants like tomatoes and peppers, broccoli will be stunted due to lack of root space. Beth

hey Al, the mangos would need winter protection. The condo mangos, sugar apples, and carambolas can be grown in pots and brought indoors, or at least moved to a covered area. Warning, if you do the large potted tree thing, in a few years you will start looking into a greenhouse. So far, I have not tried a feioja that I like (I've had smooth skinned and bumpy). Tropical guavas on the other hand can be quite good. If you like sweetish fruit, strongly consider planting a white sapote in the ground. Possibly you could find some fruit at a farmers market to try first. Seedlings grow fairly fast, you could then graft over to a known flavor later. Make sure to keep one branch of your seedling to try the fruit, just in case it is cultivar of the future. You could also just buy a ready grafted variety to make things easier and achieve fruit faster. Jaboticaba would also make a great conversation piece for your yard. -Ethan

I've grown all those except Diamond Muscat. Have grown Summer Muscat and it has great flavor but small berries that crack for me. I'd like to try the Diamond as I've heard it's good. If you haven't tried a Muscat throw one of these in. If you can spray some, mainly for powdery mildew, I'd recommend Flame, red, Summer Royal, black, and Princess, green. I'm eating Princess right now and it's amazingly sweet. Summer Royal is the best tasting and makes superb raisins. If you don't want to spray go with the hardy more disease resistant seedless like Faith, Hope, Joy, Gratitude, Glenora, etc

No and yes in that order. I live on the Alabama side of the Gulf Coast. If your advanced enough in gardening and are used to covering things like certain citrus or using heating cables, lamps, wood burning barels, heaters with fans, christmas lights, or any similar method of keeping them heated then by all means. I have grown them a couple of times and it seems every couple of winters I forget and have to go back to the beginning. I still say it is worth it by far and honestly we have only had three days of frost this winter so far so covering with the tarp was pretty easy. Hope that helps a lot.