It must be awesome to have so many people near you to learn from...
My next door neighbor used to have a beautiful vegetable garden, but he's gotten too old to take care of it, so they now hire someone to spray the patch where he was growing his veggies with some toxic spray, so nothing grows anymore.
I barely see him, so I can't ask him any questions...
Toxic spray doesn't sound too nice. I used to live in an area where most people just had lawns and the odd shrub or tree. I prefer messy gardens.