Started my cleaning out process today. Two pods removed and I'm thinking about removing the tomatoes tomorrow. Need to find somewhere to put the tomatoes since the are still growing. The pods I removed today were just dead plants so not much impact on the garden besides making some extra space.
The roots on the basil looked like black sludge. Definitely feel like removal was a good idea. there is a mess of roots inside the base of the garden right now so pulling out some dead stuff should be helpful. I doubt I got all the roots out but not much i can do abou that at this point. The root situation makes me a bit nervous for trying to remove the tomato plants.