You have to leave some space between plants anyway, so what I generally do is place some inexpensive pavers here and there to walk on--they also make an impermeable "mulch" around veggies that don't cast much shade. Right now it's probably still cool enough for you to be planting peas, radishes, lettuce, spinach, and cabbages/brussels sprouts/broccoli/cauliflower, none of which enjoy hot weather. The peas and radishes will be gone first, and eventually the spinach and lettuce will also give up to the summer heat, so do your spacing with that in mind. Swiss chard and beets can also be planted now, but will last longer...chard will take some frost so is a good veggie to plant if you like it. Onion starts and green onions (from little bulbs) can also be planted early. For your space allotment, you would be better with peas (and later, green beans, if not tomatoes) as climbers on tripods or netting on the side of your bed away from the sun so they don't shade other things. You could plant your tomatoes (or green beans) where the peas were, as they should not be planted until comfortably after your last frost date, but a few weeks later will still get you tomatoes. You could plant zucchini where the lettuce and radishes were. Etc. If you plant peppers, which generally have a similar growth habit to tomatoes, but a bit smaller, plant then about the same time as tomatoes--when it is consistently warm with no possibility of a frost. Plan to plant any vining crops like cucumbers, winter squash, zucchini, etc. on the edge of your bed which faces the sun the longest. The sun will draw them away from the bed so that they won't compete as much with whatever else you have planted. They are the most susceptible to cold, and are usually planted some time after tomatoes and peppers. Bush zucchini can also get quite large and cast a lot of shade. Someone else will have to advise you about carrots, celery, potatoes...I am not experienced with those. If you like artichokes, though, you should try them. You will have faster results if you purchase pregrown cabage family, tomatoes, and artichokes, but it's a waste to spend money for starts of lettuce, spinach, and most other vegetables...most of the vine ones do fine direct seeded asa the weather is consistently warm, which is when tomatoes also do best...but it does stretch the growing season to use plants for those with the longest times to maturity. Tomatoes will survive before the weather is consistently warm as long as there are no frosts, but not do as well as if you had waited. Ones planted at the optimal time will usually get just as large as those planted earlier, and be more productive. If you plant full sized tomato plants, tomato cages are advisable, and they would also be helpful to pepper plants and Brussels sprouts. Obviously, you will not be able to plant all of these, but will have to choose which you like the best and go from there. Tomatoes are usually a priority for most, and three or four well grown plants properly spaced can yield a good quantity of tomatoes. If you like hot peppers, the Thai ones make a small plant and produce quite a few little red peppers toward the end of the summer. Brussels sprouts take up quite a bit of room, but can be picked over a period of time, unlike cabbage. Some varieties of broccoli are especially good at producing side shoots when the main head has been cut off. You can get quite a few green onions with one short row, if you like them. Peas and green beans, if kept picked when ready, will keep producing (peas only until it gets hot). Ditto with zucchini and cucumbers. The winter squashes are usually not ready until late summer, but if you pick some green for summer use it will sometimes stimlate more to be developed. The vegetables that don't do well in heat either die (peas) or start producing seed (lettuce, spinach, broccoli, etc.) In some countries, radish seed pods are pickled, I have noticed. Also, I think radish leaves make a tasty vegetable, either steamed or stir fried. So do beet greens.

I don't know much about the clumping varieties (which I hope it is) but I've had a problem with being invaded by running bamboo for years. IT was enough to cause me to abandon gardening in that area entirely as, the more water and fertilizer I put on MY yard, the more I encouraged the wretched think to intrude and sucker in my place. I've a couple of suggestions and First is to try to identify your monster, with some photos, distance/ close up, clump bases, canes, leaves etc and maybe some physical samples if you can get them. You can possibly do the identification on-line but if not there are a couple of bamboo specialty nurseries who might be able to help you. I say that because they are all anxious to push the benefits of the clumping varieties and NOT have them classed with the weedier ones. I know there is a bamboo nursery hinterland round oxenford way, and a couple further north Qld. If it turns out to be a "weed" you may have better prospects. Second armed with at least a proper botanical name you can do some more research on what the plant's growth is and the long-term prospects Third , make yourself familiar with the Qld neighbourhood disputes legislation - it's probably early days yet and I always urge neighbours to try to resolve differences themselves, a bit of give and take armed with information and a list of complaints and a list of possible cures works better than the animosity of a paper war. It is my understanding that bamboo are pretty shallow rooted so the matt-like fibrous mass you found is probably it. If that alone is a problem with your plantings, really the only way is to get some professional help to trench along the boundary to a decent depth (there are companies that specialise in this with water blasting, cuts through like a knife) then with a reasonably impermiable barrier to stop the roots from further invading. You'd probably have to go down a metre. Then, if its not a running bamboo, the cut-off roots would simply die but it would be better to just dig over the ground there and pull them out. I also believe that cut stems do not re-shoot. It's really only a super tall grass. The material itself, probably would not compost down easily, it's been suggested using the stuff as an alternative to wood pulp for paper-making, certainly the canes themselves will last for some years. So the mess as well as the shade etc is another point to add to your list of complaints. If you have no invading suckers but the root problem and shade (plus falling debris) them you are largely restricted to using shallow-rooted plants yourself, or potted ones. Or using a weed-mat type material (or even denser) and raising up some garden-beds over that, to take shade plants. there are lots of alternatives there, bromeliads, orchids, azalias etc. Here is a link that might be useful: the Qld Justice Dept website

Ok, I'm not sure I am reading your diagrams correctly so bear with me if I'm way off base. But it appears to me you are wasting a lot of space with so many paths, and overly narrow paths at that, just to have so many different beds. So my first question would be why so many beds? More beds is not necessarily more productive or more useful than fewer but bigger beds would be. Is the E-W directional placement of the beds what is limiting you? If so, then that isn't any sort of absolute "law". Lots of gardeners use N-S beds quite successfully and they can be easy to compensate for the direction by arranging plantings and crop rotation. And it would appear that in your case using a N-S orientation would allow for a much more effective use of space. 3' or 4' wide beds that could be 12, 14, or even 18 feet long. For example using Version 7 diagram, one 3x14 foot long bed could abutt up to the patio edge on one side and you'd have a 3' path between it and the green tree band on the east. Follow m? 1' wide paths are basically useless for any practical purposes and 2' paths aren't much better. You'll live to regret those narrow spaces. So on the south side, if you feel you MUST run E-w then combine some of those many tiny beds into fewer larger ones OR make 2 N-S beds that are 4'x-24' long with 3 foot wide paths all around. Much less wasted space, more growing space, essentially the same amount of fill required, and I would argue more attractive than having a bunch of tiny little beds crammed together. Make sense? Dave

"... standard bamboo barrier (30") should work fine ..." "... even most trees have 85% or more their root system within the top 12" of the soil ..." ^^ considerable uncertainty as to tunnel depth in inches, which is very strange, as I said before. Maybe I should elaborate a little on 'strange'. Root barriers are basic tools, and one could expect it to have been systematically researched long, long time ago. For example, tunnel depth is almost certainly deeper for a thin barrier material like sheet metal. Tunnel depth is almost certainly shallower for a thick barrier material like 1' thick concrete, because the roots not only have to dive, but also have to traverse the 1' before being able to move upwardly to sucker on the other side of the thick barrier. High school level science would graph that as a dependency curve depicting the dependency of tunnel depth vs thickness of barrier material ... for the various species ... for the various parameters of growing conditions ... etc. Maybe you don't even agree with what I just said, frankly it doesn't really matter. Rather, the point is this: 'if you can't put numbers to the facts, you can't really use the facts' ... strange for such a basic tool as a root barrier ... one could not really use nuts and bolts without putting numbers to those nuts and bolts either ... Not that I am in distress or something, I still have 4-5 months of planning time :-)