The only thing I've been successful growing in the ground is grape tomatoes, which I love. It seems like nothing else does well. I have pots like yours for my herbs, and they do just fine. My soil has red clay about 14 inches below the surface - not good for drainage or root growth. :sniff:

A lot of quick growing veges don't need much root growth spexx. Things like lettuce and bok choy for example. You should also be able to grow other salad type veges such as capsicum (you guys call them peppers I think). Also brocoli and cabbage etc would do fine too.

Just try turning the soil over with some fertilizers high in phosphate. If you can get hold of some kind of chook poo and water it down then sprinkle it on the soil during this process that'd be helpfull too. Let it sit and mulch down for a week or two (which is quite necessary if you use chook poo because otherwise it can burn the seedlings when you put them in) then away you go.

You can also get stuff to break up clay soil if you want to increase the depth, but the best thing really is to build up what you've got and put a frame around the outside for your garden bed.

I had a frame, and roto-tilled in peat moss, manure, and compost every spring, covered the soil with "no weed" cloth and heeped mulch on top, but it didn't seem to help. Peppers and tomatoes were small, broccoli didn't work, and zucchini died after producing 3 or 4 zucs.

What is chook poo?

poultry shit is chook poo.

Have you thought about getting your soil tested? Perhaps it's either too acid or too alkaline. Either way you can fix that. Zucchini like good drainage or their roots rot. Same with most other salad type veges. It's probably because of the clay basin (which I've had to deal with before) so you need to get the stuff to break it down. I'm having a mental blank on what the stuff is you need, but you can buy it in large bags and it's white powdery stuff. I'll remember the name later and come back and post it.

Gypsum is the stuff. You sow it into the soil as you would your dry fertilizer and manure but you put it in before the fertilizer and manure.

Frankly, anybody who watched Steve Irwin's memorial service got that reference. However, Aussie folk hasn't yet scored a huge audience in the States. Folk aficionados are no doubt importing their discs from online dealers these days.

I didn't watch the memorial service, so I've no idea what was on it.