Mary: Don't worry about the rototilling, concrete, or any disease issues either soil or airborne between veggies and fruit trees. The road salt might be a problem but probably not. So that leaves spacing which can be pretty close. With proper pruning you can hold a peach pretty small. Apples are even easier on M9 or M26 rootstock. I've grown both peaches and apples in 15 gallon pots. So even if you prune a lot of roots with the rototiller, you will still have 10 to 100 times more soil volume. The Fruitnut

@ foodfiend_gardener, Most of the pricer lines have places where you can try out various cooktops - that's what I would try to do. You might have to go to more than one place, but its a small price to pay for some decision information. I would also consider induction. Forgive me it this has been covered above. A rangetop generally has more space for larger pans because the unit itself is deeper - there is more space available from front to back. I would view that as a positive EXCEPT if its placed near a corner with opposing cabinets. It may require a 4" or so filler to permit the next cabinet around the corner to open completely. The same kind of consideration would need to be given to access for the cabinets on both side of a decision to place a rangetop across a corner. @marthavilla - I think it depends on your personal experience with sealed burners. Just like there isn't the one-true open burner design, sealed burners from different manufacturers are different. I'm pretty sure they vary widely in actual performance (mine have). Same pots, same cook, but different results. I think there isn't a big generality that explains or reconciles every view of open vs. closed. I don't have the budget for an expensive cooktop/range so I'm more familiar with the pretty bad burner designs on the more modest end of the money spectrum where the burners are always sealed. I'm not saying they're all bad, just that the ones I cooked on were. The thing about single ring burners and the center being cold? I have actually experienced this (for 7.5 years) on the last range. I think its possible that the physics-speakers are not making enough allowance for stupid burner designs. In my case, the diameter between where the flames are perpendicular to the bottom of the pan at medium was close to 8 inches on the power burner. Even when the burner was turned all the way down, the effective flame diameter was still more than 6 inches. The more the burner was turned up, the further out the flame moved and the larger the "flameless" center became. It was my experience that the effect of "cold center" on that burner was barely changed by heavier cookware or cookware that was more conductive. It could be changed by stirring. It's possible that I just didn't own any cookware big enough and heavy enough (I would have trouble lifting something like an enameled cast iron pot with at least a 12" diameter on the bottom). The 17k power burner design was Extra-Stupid but the 11k burner design was ok. It had a diameter almost 2 inches narrower between the flames. A properly heated cast iron pot could fill-in the cold center. I couldn't use the same pot (3 qt casserole) on the power burner because the flame would miss the pan on any setting > 1. As a matter of fact, the setting at 2, 3 and 4 was the same as 1 - this was true on all its burners. Because I could literally take the same cookware outside where I had an open burner camp stove - its has 30k burners that I never turn up more than halfway. A 30k burner turned up all the way is a scary burner to me. It was easy for me to ascribe the difference to open v. closed burners. The burners on a culinairian look like a tamed and refined version of camp stove burners. My new range is the baby NXR with 15k dual stacked burners and I'm pretty happy. I get done cooking in less time with better results in doing simple things like browning chicken. I can boil a gallon of water in 15 minutes on any burner. This is a miracle to me. On the stupid sealed burner design, I couldn't boil 2.5 pints of water in 20 minutes without stirring. So, not-stupid closed burner designs have removed some of the open burner desire.. I still think positioning more of the heat in the center of the pot at all power levels is better than positioning it closer to the outer edges. Open burners win in my mind at being able to effectively heat a wide variety of pan sizes and many types of cookware on the same burner.

I have a couple griddle overlays on six burners and am very happy with that. I do from time use all my burners. I would look at the properties of the metals and see what would fit the way you cook. I like that with the add on you could change the griddle if you wanted to use the different metals with different properties. Some differences in the built in and add on-- The built in may be thicker than the add on but you would have to ask as they may very brand to brand. The built in is often made of steel. Because steel has poor heat transfer qualities, this will take longer to heat and not be as nimble if you want to change the temperature of the cooking surface. It will be more subject to hot spots. If it is thicker, it will take even longer and be take longer to change temp. It will hold much more heat for searing and retain heat longer though. Most have a surface that will season over time and become non stick like a cast iron skillet. I think Thermador has some other finish on theirs. Some of the overlay griddles are a little bigger as wide as 15 inches. There are also some ranges that come with an add on griddle specific to that range that fits and seats a little better than the regular add ons. With add ons, you would have your choice of metals, usually between steel, cast iron, porcelain covered cast iron, nonstick aluminum and uncoated aluminum. Steel and cast iron are poor conductors of heat so would behave as described above. Some people like that there tends to be areas that are different temperatures because they can use it to their advantage. These will both take a seasoning fairly easily. For being add ons, they are very heavy to move around. The porcelain covered cast iron will not really take a seasoning very well. Aluminum griddles have excellent heat transfer so heat very evenly throughout and are quicker to respond to changes in heat. They do not hold as much heat though. Aluminum is also much lighter weight if you have to move it. Bare aluminum will take a seasoning but require a little more time to develop. Some like the nonstick griddles but I always think of them as disposable eventually. Here is a link that might be useful: materials of cookware

18K is 18K, as long as the standards used to determine output are the same. I think more the point is the debate seen on this forum about the "I want all the burners the same" versus the "I want individual burners specialized for different uses" school. Clearly the polar extremes here are the GE and the Lacanche. BTU addicts would clearly argue "more is better" and therefore conclude that 4, or 5, or 6 18K burners trumps one 18K burner. That's clearly true if all you ever intend to do is sear/grill/wok--i.e. high heat cooking. The Lacanche philosophy is quite different. It's based on the notion that one burner does not necessarily do everything well. Thus, a 5K simmer burner with a small diameter flame ring can simmer delicately even when using a very small pan, mid sized 11K burners are nice all purpose units, and the 18K burner is great for heating a big pot of pasta water or searing foie gras. There are attempts to have cake and eat it too. For example, BlueStar avoids some of the pan-burner size mismatches inherent to ranges with all high output burners with the star burner configuration. That means even small diameter burners will get some heat. However, there still exists the problem that the outer ends of the star burner still scorch the outside of the small pan and the handle, and if nothing else, waste gas by heating air and handles. Others, like our Dacor PGM, use twin concentric burners, with a very low heat inner simmer burner plus the high heat outer burner. A better compromise, though my issue with the Dacor is that there is a gap in heat output between the lowest setting on the outer ring, and the highest setting on the inner simmer burner. There are times when I can't quite hit the perfect setting as it's between the two settings. There are even other solutions (the on-off system for simmering, which clicks the burners on and off continuously--which would drive me crazy). And the Lacanche offers the option of taking the specialization even further with option of the French top, offering yet another solution to the low heat issue--burner is always on full and you just move the pot closer or further from the center of the top. I don't think there is a right or wrong. We went with the Lacanche and I think it will do nicely for us. Others, who want to be able to nuke multiple pans simultaneously choose the BS. Different strokes...