I think I’m not a million miles away from you two Bill…also 56…Outback I’m surrounded by farmland on 3 sides and have two border collies who love digging…trying to think of an effective workable compromise…lol…x 
Good Luck Helen, ‘Bijou’, is not a digger, and if She accidently came face to face with a wild animal, she would be desperate to give it a kiss, thinking, “I want you to be my chum” 
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I’m not so much thinking of my Collies unearthing and indiscriminately dispatching wildlife… as envisioning flying potatoes and onions and leeks in an effort to discover what lies beneath…and also bring the offenders into my lounge for me to deal with…lol…x
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I think herbs will generally grow anywhere, Helen, and won’t need any cosseting with a polytunnel. Same with courgettes, they are horrifyingly prolific I find. A seed once sprouted and with two little diddy leaves will enjoy a week under an upturned jam jar until it gets its legs, but will cover three to four square metres of terrain in as many months and give you a wheelbarrow or two full of courgettes from one hairy plant. Mine does.
If by peppers you mean the hot ones, if planted in late May or June they will quickly reach for the sky and don’t need a lot of encouragement or cover here in Normandy where it’s hardly mediterranean. Same with tomatoes too, ‘tho they like some liquid fertiliser occasionally to redden and plump them up. Just stick em in a hole in the ground, pull out any encroaching mauvaises herbes before they get knee-high, and tuck in. It’ s easy peasy.
I reckon carrots grown from seed early in the season may need tunnels, but not much else does. Nature hasn’t yet produced any polytunnel thingies to help things grow, I observe… 
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It looks a bit like saponaria which you can use as a mild soap.
It spreads easily even under concrete.
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For Tomatoes and Peppers we use old plastic pots with the bottoms cut off to plant them outside. Leave an inch or so of pot above ground so that when you water it goes where it’s needed rather than just running away needlessly. Hotter and drier here than where you are but can get away with watering 2 or 3 times a week.
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If ‘e keeps goin’ the wont be owt left Lass 
Il est beau!!
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Looks like a Looper to me… watching them walk can be quite amusing… certainly for kids (and me)… sometimes they stand up on their back legs/thingies and reach around with their upper parts… to latch onto anything they can find… 
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Wonder what kiNd of butterfly it produces !
Everything you wanted to know about looper caterpillars but were afraid to ask…
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Thank you very much Chris !
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It’s courgette glut time again…back to courgette cake, courgette spaghetti, courgette fritters. We’d welcome any new ideas!
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Beautiful Jane. Can not beat home grown fruit and veg. We were lucky enough to be given a big bag of haricots vert from a friend’s garden and they are lovely.
I called on an elderly neighbour… even in this heat, she insisted I have a coffee… and, when I finally made an exit… I left laden with cucumbers, courgettes and tomatoes…
This time of year is wonderful… 
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Ours, mainly go on the barbie, bit of olive oil and salt, in foil 
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Loads on here Jane
Would be prepared to volounteer as a guinea-pig 
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On here too, and they have * and advice on changing the recipes…
Have used Marmiton in the past, looking for easy recipes, and I did manage to follow them
https://www.marmiton.org/recettes/recherche.aspx?aqt=courgette