I can really identify with you. Some years ago I was also in a townhouse in Northern Virginia and trying to grow a garden. There are issues of space and sunlight as well as your timetable. Both suggestions of raised beds and containers are good ones -- if the townhouse is not yours, container gardens are less permanent. A book I suggest is The Bountiful Container, by McGee and Stuckey. In addition to being a wealth of information, they lay out container garden themes. May is not too late to start, particularly if you buy transplants and plants that grow to harvest quickly. Also, given your limited space, you may want to decide what your favorite vegetables are, then check out their timing and space requirements. Herbs, lettuce (well, various greens), peppers, eggplant, and radishes are what I grew. The nice thing about containers is that if it is too cold at night but warm in the day (as it is now in Northern Virginia), you can move the containers in and out of the house.

June bearing produce a large number of berries, whereas only a few everbearing do. I plant both, but once the Junes are done, it's scare. If you're going to process the berries it's nice to have a large quanity. If you like having only a few berries everyday plant everbearing. Depends how many plants you have. Many feel June bearing are also better eating, but I have Elan F1 everbearing and the first berries were very tart, the rest are fantastic, and it is quite the producer for an everbearer. Problem is I only have one plant, and it only threw one runner. Everbearing tend to lose production faster too, after a few years they are done. June bearers could last 5 years. It all depends on cultivar. Some everbearing are only good for 1 year.

I started a raspberry patch about 4 years ago. I read all about it, and everything only confused me more. Last year I had a bumper crop. I'd cut back some and left some and din't really know what I was doing... So, as I was talking to someone about it, he said, "Just cut them all down to the ground." So, I took the plunge last fall, and cut them all back. This year they are doing beautifully. I had a crop earlier of short stalks. Now I'm getting a beautiful crop from the taller stalks (about 4 feet high). I don't have ANY that are 10 feet. But, my raspberries are red raspberries..not black raspberries. But it sure was easier cutting them all back rather than fussing with them.

Hello there. The response to your query is probably too late (might be) but here is something else to read: http://www.omafra.gov.on.ca/english/crops/facts/00-007.htm Altough you seem to have it all covered already. I have not tried anything of the sort so far, but was planning to use interstems for apricots and peaches. (Using prunus nigra as rootstock with chum convoy interstem to graft apricots and peaches on top. Never tried it on apples yet since I do not use Antonovka as PG. I find it not hardy enough to be trustworthy (it is hardy to zone 3b-4 I believe). Plus it makes gigantic trees. So I rely on crabapple rootstock that have grown for many years in my orchard area and survived up to -45'C many years. It is not the same type of soil though. I do not have to deal with clay. I did read that on top of the variety of the interstem that has an influence on the vigor, the lenght of it also does. Maybe you already knew. Here is a link to the wiki article (in French). https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greffe_%28botanique%29#Surgreffe Let us know the outcome of your experiments!