I would say that 2011 was a good learning experience for me garden-wise. The biggest lesson learned was that successful gardening takes a lot of time and attention to be successful, which is not necessarily a bad thing. In 2011, I experimented with growing various salad greens and spinach in my backyard garden and I rented a plot at a local community garden. Both gardens were moderately successful. The big takeaway was to continue growing lettuce, spinach, and other leafy greens in my backyard and to avoid the community garden. I think the community garden would have worked better had I spent more time at the garden and did a better job of preparing the soil.
This year I'm going to plant various lettuce, spinach, and kale in the back yard. In fact, I have some seed trays going in the basement right now. I'm partnering up with my grandpa and will be planting tomatoes, peas, and green beans in his garden. His garden is larger, well established, and well maintained. I will help with the prep work, plant seeds and get seedlings going, and try to help with maintenance about once a week throughout the season. Plus I can bring my family with me while I am there so I won't have to spend as much time away from them. I'm also looking forward to spending more time with my grandpa.
My wife and I really enjoyed canning our tomatoes last year so we are going to continue with that this year as well. I'm hoping to put in about 20 Roma tomato plants to get us a good supply for canning. I'm also putting in green beans and peas which we will use to eat and then freeze the excess.
Spring is fast approaching and with it comes garden season. Can't wait!
