When it's too much work, takes up too much space, isn't yielding enough, is plagued continually by pests/disease, gives me no pleasure. There are so many plants to choose from, I don't bother with trouble.

Jeff - If you cut the older plants off at the stem, you can plant near them by digging small holes. You obviously can't do any tilling, but you can definitely add a layer of compost and scatter fertilizer and "scratch it in" (raking lightly into the top inch or two). You need to plant them earlier, yes ... like in August or September. That gives them the long, coolish winter to do their thing.

Jay, You have to stay as far away from the politics as you can. These negative people will just bring you down. In the early days of my nursery business I started out at a farmers market selling herbs so I could get people to my nursery. It worked and I stopped selling at the farmers market. I have since retired. Most of the folks at my local market had their own farm location, and sold at the farmers market just to entice people to their farms. The market isnÂt where they planned to make their total income. Here are just two folks who started at the market and then left to run a successful market. Tabora Farm started out selling fruit from their orchard and now has an excellent market at their own farm. The wife baked pies to use up some of their harvest and now theyÂre known for their wonderful pies. http://www.taborafarmandorchard.com/store/ These folks use to bake bread in their basement, and now they have one of the best bread bakeries in town. http://www.crossroadsbakeshop.com/ Another women made and sold jellies and muffins until a local Bed and Breakfast asked her to sell some to them on a regular basis. She found out that other B&BÂs were also interested. She has since retired. I could list dozens of success stories. The secret is to compete only with yourself, and to stay away from the bickering and gossip. Anyone who is doing this is not making money. Good luck, and keep up the good work.

Zone 5B in Southern Ontario. I only water the Tomato Rockets twice a day. The rest I look for signs the soil is dry like a lighter colour, cracking in the soil and it feeling dry to the touch. The Tomato Rockets are kinda like a tape I guess. I have the plants that are sprouting a few inches from the lights, just regular house lights and SAD lamps I have on hand. I took one large oval bucket I got from the Dollarama and lined the inside with tin foil and have a wide lamp sitting on top of that. Most of those plants are doing well its just that some of my seeds (right beside ones that grew and are doing well) have not sprouted and they would have been watered at the same time as the ones around them. I'm starting the seeds inside and I created a shelter outside with plastic tarp over it to let them get some sun outside. I've been doing this for a week or more and the seedlings are doing well. It's just some trays that nothing is growing in. If nothing is growing I assume maybe they aren't ready yet but the ones side by side with healthy growing seedlings should have sprouted by now. I have kept records to track when I planted, when they sprouted, when to expect maturity, etc. So now I have some trays with some empty slots where I transplanted the seedlings to larger individual containers. This way I can put all the seedlings in the limited light I have and the ones that haven't germinated yet can stay warm but don't need the light.