The fruit is rather hopeless, but at least it's not poisonous. It's texture is somewhat gritty but not gritty in an interesting way. I have only eaten one, too. If I were to ever plant an Irish Strawberry tree, or if there was one in my garden in the right place, I would allow it to grow tall. It is a veeeeeery slow grower, and it will only reach tree size if you stay for many, many years, or the person who planted it did so two or three decades earlier. My Mum has one, between her house and the neighbour. I never really looked at it until the day I realised that it was in fact Arbutus unedo, grown very high and very large, right under my nose, during the time that I lived in my parents house. It's a lovely thing. A big, evergreen tree of fairly good behaviour. And I think free of pests and diseases.

A living mulch is pretty common but they do often compete with the crop. I've tried clover and rye before. Clover works very well but your veggies need to be well established first for best results and your soil needs to be as weed free as possible. Clover sprouts quickly direct seeded. Not sure the brand of straw i have access to but it is gorgeous. Finely chopped, beautiful texture and a pale bright yellow. Pretty much my go-to mulch for herbs and veggies, and others like basil and greens i plant thick enough to not need a mulch but will side dress/mulch with a pro-mix during the grow season. You could initially use a pro-mix as a mulch, then try direct seeding some clover thickly on the leading edge, maybe a foot around the bed....but just trying to visualize what your garden even looks like....or what veggies you are speaking of. Some need space to produce well, so competition from other plantings between means less production of crop. Something fast growing and trailing that has one main root structure may work in some cases, like the sweet potato vines or trailing nasturtiums. Re-routing the growth back into the bed if they escape. I've used them in my brussel sprouts/broccoli/cauliflowers bed before to perk up how dull those plants look most of the early summer. I have a corn area about 20x20 that did well with clover a couple years. Now will be a pumpkin/winter squash bed this year. (covered and not used last year). I've considered a living mulch, but a thick newspaper border covered with a bale of hay works so well and needs less tending and provides a soft surface off the ground for the crop to rest and ripen nice and dry during rainy weather... Google 'living mulch'. Someone may have good ideas and successful companion planting advice more current... since i first read of it years ago, my ideas and use may be outdated....

The best method I've found so far is to go to the bench grinder and just hold them between your fingers and buzz against the stone for a second. It gets through the shell in a flash and you don't have to file your finger tips off with a file. I get through about 100-150 in ten minutes that way. Then I soak them in water for a day or three and stick them in starting soil. I'm getting about 90-95% starts. If you use the peat pellet starters the roots will stick out the bottom within days of germination and you'll be potting them up within the second week. I'm currently starting about 3,000 seeds and expect flowers just before frost, or more likely next season.

Meiwa to Poncirus several 4 grafts to be made. At the end of the year the grafts will either be successful, or the kumquats will take off on their own roots, or the trees will face winter UNPROTECTED OUTSIDE. I am going to go with the Meyer lemons I received as gifts. They are looking very nice now. Steve