Are you sure they don't mind? It's always assumed plants can't possibly have feelings because they have different systems and structures to animals but a lot of them also have defences against getting eaten so one has to wonder ;D
I think I've mentioned before that the garden is mostly J's domain, but right now it's pretty overgrown with grass as he hasn't had the time to get out there and deal with it. I'm not sure what's going on with it at the moment, the latest is we got home earlier and the chickens had gotten into one of the smaller patches and eldest complained that they'd killed everything.
we are still at loggerheads about containing the chickens
Do tomatoes grow like weeds over there? J said that where he grew up you could throw a tomato really hard at the wall and end up with a billion more tomatoes. Though I guess if you don't like the wild garden look it might not be the best method XD
They tend to grow very well, the climate suits them and I have a bit of a skill for it I guess, I'm very happy with how they have worked out. I'm not into the wild garden look for my vegetables, I like a bit of order, but I let plants do what they want to, just within the boundaries of my garden beds.
Hopefully J can get our there and get something happening, it sounds like you have a reasonable amount of room and it's a shame to see it go to waste, not get used for production of some good stuff your family could enjoy.