I'm sure your neighbors were happy to see veggies, even bolting crops, over the weedy yard, Spaghetina. Here's a couple of suggestions I have from my time growing organically up in SF and Marin. 1) Most of those flowers of the bolted veggies are edible and tasty. While the leaf flavor has turned bitter through the winter and the taste change that comes with bolting, the blossoms often gain a very interesting taste that is great topping salads or lightly fried in certain dishes. 2) If like germinating your own crops from seed, remember which of your crops are heirloom (their seeds will usually produce true) and which are F1 or other hybrids -- it's seed is typically still viable, but may have very different characteristics than the parent. The GW seed exchange forum is a great way to get those exotic seeds you mentioned w/o having to pay catalog prices or drive all over the Bay area, but you need your own seeds to reciprocate. Some of the best plants & veggies in my yard are from trades I've made with other GW members. 3) To my way of thinking, your soil mix seems too heavily focused on decomposed organic matter and doesn't take advantage of the alkaline SF clay topsoil and it's associated soil flora. The compost/purchased soil is great for nitrogen and drainage and you can artificially pump up the P/K/Fe to grow good veggies & plants in it, but organic amendments like blood & bone meal, fish emulsion, seaweed and others need bacteria & fungi to free the nutrients for your crop's roots. That's generally not true for soluble inorganic amendments, which is why they are popular. There's definitely a risk of adding weed seeds by using your yard's topsoil in the garden beds, but that soil food web is necessary for growing good organic crops, IMO. For plants that need lots of N and like great drainage, I go 2/3 purchased soil/fully composted organic matter and 1/3 native topsoil. For tomatoes, peppers and others that suffer in N-rich soils, I use 2/3 native, 1/3 organic matter.

I have a similar problem with my spouce. I use a small fence. sign..... or (last resort) threat of physical harm to protect certain plants..

Dinglehopp, I strongly suggest you email Pamela. Like I said, I don't remember now how I came up with her name, but she didn't have a Boule de Neige listed as being available. I just asked--do you by any chance have one? She answered that she had a small one going and thought she could send it to me in the later fall (I was writing in the early fall). I explained that in Kansas, we waited until spring to plant our new roses, and she wrote back that was even better and she could promise a good-sized one for sure for April. So that was all arranged through our emails--it was not part of a regular online order. Good luck! Kate

My Rising Sun when planted in July'13 is below. Was 2.5' tall. Photo from Sep'16 below. About 5' tall. It was heavily mauled by deer down to one little branch in '14. Still a bit lopsided. In addition, I moved it once and it thrived through two legit Z5 winters, so this guy has shown nice toughness/vigor. Would probably be 7' without the deer damage. I don't have a photo that does it justice, but the color is impressive throughout most of the summer - lots of repeat flushes. I remember now looking at the Ruby Falls when shopping for a small weeper two years ago, but I got nervous about the Forest Pansy parentage, as Forest Pansy is not truly Z5 hardy. They sell FP here, but I don't think they thrive with the cold. That's why I went with the Pink Heartbreaker - similar form but green leaved.