Julie, you can keep your peppers and tomatoes in the garden all summer, but production will slow or stop until temps begin to fall again. You'll also need to fight insects. I did that one year with tomatoes and never again. In fact, I started pulling tomato plants yesterday. I've been harvesting for 6 weeks and have had little new fruit set except for on the cherry tomatoes. I just get tired of dealing with the heat & humidity. Harper

When getting to more significant plantings, local considerations amplify the spacing considerations that you've already found you needed to tweak for the short-term crops and your ultimate goals can point to radically differnet planting practices. Several of the fruit crops you mentioned have specialized site preparation needs, training, and growth habits that are addressed specifically for that crop in a way not possible in a mixed bed of annual veggies, flowers, and herbs. Some principles do stay the same: lots of compost, mulch, and trying to get the most fruit in as small a maintained space as possible. But its going to take researching each crop to see how to do that in your situation. For fruits there is no better place than GW's on Fruit forum to tap into brainstorming after you've researched the basics and read some old posts to get ideas. For fruit trees, that usually translates to using semi-dwarfs, in extremely confined spaces you can get a larger variety with a slight production loss by planting two trees with similar growth rates and habits in the same hole. Grapes have a variety of trellising arrangements, depending on variety, climate, and asthetic concerns. For blackberries and raspberries, a narrow bed isolated from other beds is recommended.

They seem to like Kombucha vinegar, but we haven't had very many this year, even with all the peaches I had sitting around. Had a few cherry tomatoes going bad, and the fruit flies didn't even find them. We keep a covered compost bucket outside the kitchen door, and I go on the offensive if I see any of the little dickens hanging out on the off-white cabinets. Both of my parents have complained that they have a multitude of FF, but they leave stuff sitting out all the time. My father resorted to hanging the long sticky traps--one needs to be very careful while leaning over his kitchen sink! In the past I've used the homemade plastic drink bottle traps, with a piece of slimy fruit in water or vinegar in the bottom.

I put a free sign out by the street. Most goes that way. I also donate to the food shelf. I just got myself a freeze dryer so that I can store food without taking freezer or canning space. I planted about 60 crowns of asparagus a few years back, so I'm expecting a huge harvest season soon. I've heard that it freeze dries well, and when reconstituted, tastes as good as fresh. I'm eager to try it! I also have over 50 kinds of fruit growing on the property, so it will be nice to have that freeze dried for consumption through the winter. I have about 50 blueberry bushes alone...I had no idea how many blueberries that would translate to, so I invite friends to come pick. It's great because I see people I wouldn't necessarily otherwise see and they are thrilled to go home with gallons of blueberries for free. I'm thrilled because I didn't have to pick them all, and I get to see friends and catch up. We also have a town-wide community forum where people post things like lost cats, furniture for sale...whatever. When I become inundated with too much produce, I plan to post free/inexpensive offerings. I finally divided my rhubarb plant and made 14 more; I'm assuming that will be one of the things I'll have plenty to give away! I've got tons of herbs, too. How much sage can one person use?!