Great story. Danny Boyle would be lucky to get it.

Jahid - Thanks for the questions. For tomatoes and squash, I would recommend somewhat deeper beds than the 5.5" you propose. These plants need a fair bit of water to develop and fruit well, and deeper soil accompanied by good, deep watering, really helps. Also, any root crops except radishes need a good 10-12" or more (parsnips can easily get 14-16" long). Potatoes and asparagus need even deeper soil - 18" or more. However, all is not lost! The 5-6" beds are good for all kinds of lettuces and other greens, as well as strawberries, so there's still plenty you can grow. In addition, if you decide you want deeper beds, it isn't hard to add another layer of boards and soil on top of the existing beds before you plant the next round of crops. Finally, you can also dig down as well as building up, in order to get greater soil depth in certain areas of your garden. A minor disadvantage with this option is that you will likely pull up a few weed seeds from the old soil beneath - but a little bit of extra (and consistent) weeding will take care of this, of course. Good luck with your garden!

Kiss - You describe some good solutions in designing a vegetable garden - the benefits of raised beds and of covered beds. Using 2x6" material to build the raised beds works fine for many plants - especially lettuces and all kinds of greens. For tomatoes, squashes and other plants, a somewhat deeper bed is helpful - our standard beds are 9-10" deep - while root crops, potatoes and asparagus need plenty of depth (18" or so). These days, we often the deeper 18" beds for older gardeners, or for anyone else on foot or in a wheelchair, who find that it makes it easier to work in the garden if they don't have to bend down so low.

Emna - The beds and planters you describe demonstrate a variety of good solutions for patio and small-space gardening. Some people prefer a more formal, uniform look where all the containers are purpose-built for the space, while for others, mixing all kinds of containers and boxes in one space gives a pleasantly relaxed feel. Putting containers on wheels is also a great idea - and is something we do increasingly often on the custom containers we make for our clients. It makes it so easy to move them around the patio if you want to rearrange the design or to clean the patio surface. Your garden sounds great!

Stefan - Regarding beneficial and non-beneficial insects: The "war" between beneficial and non-beneficial insects ebbs and flows over the years, so the re-stocking of beneficial insects every few years is helpful to keep the balance tipped in your favour. Despite your present excess of them in your garden, for future reference you can buy or order ladybugs (great aphid eaters) at many gardening stores - same with beneficial nematodes (which kill the grubs of chafer beetles & weevils, wireworm, etc. in the soil). Likewise, though people don't like them around their picnics and barbecues, wasps are great predators of caterpillars and other pests. So you might want to reconsider before you remove wasp nests, unless they're really in a place humans can't avoid. In the fall, the wasps die off, the queens go elsewhere to hibernate, and then the nests can be removed without damage to either yourself or the eco-system of your garden! Chickadees and other birds also eat enormous amounts of caterpillars and aphids, especially while raising their young - so put up nesting boxes for them so they'll stay nearby your gardens! As well, you also have organic pesticides such as neem oil, insecticidal soap, diatomaceous earth (the non-pesticide-laced kind), etc., in your "arsenal." And finally, some plants can help to repel undesirable insects - that's why you so often see marigolds and alyssum interplanted with vegetables. Look up "companion plants" on the internet or in your favourite gardening book for lots more info on other plants that help in this way. None of these options results in the all-out eradication of garden pests - but in actual fact, to accomplish such an eradication is worse for your garden, not better, as it entirely upsets the balance of the eco-system of the garden, and can also open the door to invasion by still other pests. Good luck with your garden!

Moustaffa: Regarding your questions, a few quick answers: What to plant when: I recommend that you check out the planting chart in the West Coast Seeds catalogue (fee each season at many garden stores), or on their website at: www.westcoastseeds.com - or read the backs of seeds packages. How to deal with slugs: everyone has a favoured method, but for the organic, non-chemical gardener, no method works perfectly. Options include: encouraging birds (even raccoons, I hate to say!) that will eat the slugs; laying old boards out between the rows so that the slugs go under them to hide for the day - then you come out in the early morning and remove all the slugs beneath the boards; diatomaceous earth (get the pesticide-free kind) around each of the plants; planting bug-repelling marigolds, herbs and other flowers around and among the vegetables. How to remove grass: with a spade, cut around the area you want to clear of grass, cutting down 4" or so. Then cut the sod into chunks, maybe 10x10' using the same method. Cut under the chunks of sod with the spade (get it at a low angle and kick the spade along beneath the sod). Remove each chunk as you go. This will remove 99% of the grass; anything coming up after that can be easily weeded out, making sure that you pull the tufts out including the roots. Size of containers for deck gardening: this partly depends on the kind of plants you plan to grow. Lettuces and most other greens have shallow, wide root systems, so don't need a lot of depth (6", maybe); Potatoes would need a good 18" depth. The soil in planters needs feeding - fish fertilizer, liquid kelp, etc. - more often than larger beds. It also needs consistent deep watering - again, more often than raised beds - especially in very sunny spots. The smaller the container, the more often watering is needed. Growing from seed or bedding plants: any hot weather vegetable such as peppers, tomatoes, artichokes, tomatillos, etc. should be planted from bedding plants (or if started from seed, sewn indoors several months before they can be planted out). Some plants are also just easier to grow from bedding plants - strawberries, some herbs, raspberries, and so on. Squashes, peas, beans, all kinds of greens, cucumbers, radishes, beets, parsnips, etc. can be direct sewn once the soil is warm enough - variable depending on which plant you're talking about See the West Coast Seed planting schedule mentioned above. Hope this helps!

Hi, Ruby - Good question. Yes, the best option is to build a raised garden bed in the sunny area - the raising of the bed allowing for good drainage in spite of the general wetness of the area. Many food crops need a fair bit of sun - 4-8 hours per day, depending on the particular kind. Tomatoes, tomatillos, artichokes, squashes and cucumbers, beans, various root crops, and so on - all need pretty full sun. For the plants that need less sun - lettuces, kale, parsley, onions, peas, chard, spinach, bok choi, etc. - you can either build a separate bed for them in a somewhat shadier area (though they still need a few hours of sun), or you can plant them on the shady side of the more sun-tolerant plants. Lettuce grows well in the shade of tomatoes, for instance. Besides providing good drainage, raised beds provide other benefits, including: isolating the bed from pests in the surrounding area (especially soil-borne pests), encouraging more intensive planting to produce more food per square foot, demarcating the raised area as separate from where dogs and children might otherwise walk, conserving moisture, and extending the planting season.

Hi! To keep tomatoes and potatoes from getting blight before they're ready to harvest, they need to be covered by early August so that their leaves don't get wet. In our own garden, we use the PVC-pipe-and-sheet-plastic method - not exactly high end, but certainly effective. Photos can be see here: (http://www.farmcity.ca/2010/10/winter-warnings.html) As well, if you rotate your crops on a 3-4 year cycle, so that the tomatoes and potatoes grow in different beds year to year, the blight spores will accumulate less in any one location. Good luck !