I had the ivy like you describe. You think you get all the roots, but it keeps coming back.
When I bought my house 15 years ago, the prior owner was so proud of his potatos and showed me how to care for them. Once I moved in, the cheapo potatos were removed and I had quite the passion for all sorts of peppers, basils and cilantro. Now I just do the basic tomatoes, artichoke, radish, carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, cucumbers, spinach, Oregon Sugar Pod II peas, beans and corn. When the kids and I went to buy seeds this year, they both picked out sunflowers and S7 got the type that grows 10 feet tall. I warned him that I grew these monters once before along the house and that our garden is going to be full of bees. Also, S7 had to have pumpkin again. Man do those things take up a lot of space.
Whenever someone comes from Thailand and sees the large mint section in my garden they are amazed because it is hard to grow there and they like it in some Thai dishes. For me, it spreads like ivy and I dont use it for hardly anything. Oregon is the mint capital of the world and I can see why. I would guess the bay area would also have perfect climate for mint.
I dont have gopher problems. Just some moles every once in a while. I guess that is a sign that worms are around. My problem is that there is a feral rabbit that has been hanging around for the last 3 years and now I have to put netting around certain things like when the corn starts coming up. Last year, I had some soy beans and he ate them all! I like the rabbit and I am the only person that he runs to and allows to pet - probably because I give him some dried corn feed every few days.
