Ditto on the chard. In terms of yield per square foot, it is one of the most prolific of vegetables... and greens really benefit from going straight from garden to table. Can be planted early or late, cool weather or hot, and still do well (provided it is kept watered). Since it is cut-and-come-again, you can get almost continuous harvest. For fruit in warm climates, I'd have to agree with figs. When I lived in San Diego, they bore twice a year. Fresh figs are delicious, but too perishable for them to be carried in stores except during peak season. Beautiful trees, too. But then, if space is not an issue, there's always kiwi. Beautiful vines with few pests. OK, I know that's two... you choose. ;-)

Sara, I have struggled with the weeds ever since moving to Oklahoma in 1999, and have finally determined that mulching is MORE IMPORTANT in the veggie garden than anything else I do, you know? I see a lot of people in our area who till up the ground and plant a garden in the spring--say about April. The garden looks great as you are driving by. All that lovely brown or reddish-brown soil and all those tiny green shoots in rows. It looks great by mid-May. By early June you see weeds creeping in. By late June the gardens have as much weed and bermuda grass visable as row crops. By July the weeds and grass have won and the veggies are virtually abandoned by the homeowners. Then the same thing happens all over again next year. I can't understand people doing all the work each year to start a garden and then letting the weeds take over. So, every year in my garden I mulch and hand-pull weeds, and every year the weeds are less and less of a problem. Mulching is definitely the key. Now, if I could just "transplant" my weed control success from the veg garden to the rest of my landscape! Susan, I wish the swap were in late June or early July so I could bring bushels of tomatoes and corn and beans! Since the swap is in April, though, about all I can bring is a few letover tomato plants that I didn't have space to plant. If I had planned ahead and planted a lot of cool season crops, I might have had some to share. But I save almost all my space for warm-season stuff, and those plants aren't producing yet. Love-lies-bleeding is very slow to germinate. I always soak the tiny seed in water and sprout it in pots to get it started. I transplant it while it is tiny. I haven't planted any the last couple of years because it usually reseeds itself nowadays. The problem is that I grow 15 or 20 kinds of amaranths/celosias/cockscombs, so I never know for sure just what has reseeded until they get a foot or so tall. Until then they all look alike...well, all the red-flowered ones look pretty much alike...and all the green-flowered ones look pretty much alike, etc., etc. I do love the double blue Japanese morning glory with the picotee edge. I planted it two years ago and it was gorgeous. I haven't tried it since. Simply a space problem. And I do love Grandpa Ott's. It is so beautiful. I noticed that even Wal-Mart has seeds of it now, so guess it it one heirloom that has won full acceptance and has, thus, been successfully saved from extinction. I am waiting for that first ripe tomato. Every day I go and look at the 2 plants that have one fairly large tomato each. I stare at them and try to will those tomatoes to grow faster and ripen sooner. Those big fat green tomatoes stare back at me as if to say "we'll get ripe when we're good and ready and not before". I guess I don't have to tell you that the day they are finally ripe we will have BLTs for lunch AND dinner! Dawn

I hear every word you are saying and feel your pain ms minnamouse! I too am thinking of by-passing planting this year. I also have them in my house. We killed hundreds and still kill at least one, almost daily. They walked right in through ac window units in upstairs bedrooms. Really gross creatures! Contrary to what other have said, dogs don't eat them. I have 2...neither eats them. In fact, they leave the room when one buzzes. NOTHING eats them, no matter what people try to tell you. I may mass plant marigold since I believe or HOPE they won't ATTRACT even more of what we already have. It's good to hear that research is being done but it won't help fast enough. I think they are predicting Millions upon Millions of them this year. (Gloucester County Times reported it.)We are planning to buy a case of caulking and sealing up what we could find AFTER whats left in our house leaves this spring. (We don't want to seal what's here...in) We are hoping they don't find a NEW way back in, after we caulk and seal every crevice and crack we can find. We will be installing central ac which will cost us a fortune -since we live in an old house with baseboard heat. :( We will seal carefully ourselves around the new install. We are dreading this coming autumn. There is a stink bug board out there where people are saying that a certain chemical works BUT it's poison to humans and all wildlife/insects. These wasps can't come fast enough but am wondering what the cost will be to our beneficials. No matter what...something needs to be done! I'm sure you know this but, I'll say it for those that don't..We found that dish washing liquid and water works best (it smothers them) but we can't spray our walls or ceiling with it so we use alcohol in spray bottles. It helps knock them off of the ceiling and works without damage to our paint or furniture. It doesn't kill them as fast as soap though. We also will just get them with a tissue and flush them. We used alcohol to kill the hundreds we found in our upstairs bedrooms. It won't stop them from coming though. We had to replace a window this winter and found about 100 of them huddled under our siding...in one little area! I have cedar siding so the soap solution is no good for us out there. The alcohol damages our stain so that's out too ...we feel so screwed and helpless against these disgusting creatures. I really don't want to use poison but I can't live with hoards of them in my house either. If I had hundreds this year, I'm going to get thousands next fall. We need help NOW...not in a few years. I'm getting the creepy crawlies just talking about it. If you find any answers, please post! Youtube shows a man having so many that he scrapes them off of his door to get into his house...poor guy! google it...there are many out there facing this plague. I really feel so sorry for those that are being over run and run out of their houses by these disgusting...

Figs? Is there space for a narrow vertical grower to catch more sun? If so, something like Orient Pear might work. Here is a link that might be useful: GW: Best figs for Austin, TX?