Garden Hopes and Dreams

I want to plant a vegetable garden next spring.  Nothing too fancy, because I'm very inexperienced in this particular area.  But I finally have an acre of land on which sit my house, my camper, and various other vehicles (some of which are completely unnecessary) - and lo and behold, there is a little spot in the backyard which was once tilled up for flower gardening. 

Now you might notice that I said "vegetable garden," not flower garden.  This is because I know even less about flowers than I do about vegetables, and my house tends to be like Death Row for flowering plants.  Unless they're lucky and happen to be a cactus, or some other plant that doesn't wither and turn dry, brown, and dead without water. 

When I was growing up, we had a huge vegetable garden on our farm.  Every year my mom and grandma would plant potatoes, sweet corn, green beans, wax beans, cauliflower, broccoli, radishes, onions, and sometimes carrots.  We also had dill, rhubarb, and my grandpa's precious tomato plants, from which he went to great lengths to coax beautiful, bright-red fruit.  There was also one "wild card" area of the garden which played host to something different every year.  Sometimes it was pumpkins, sometimes it was squash - one time I even remember Grandpa planting strawberry vines.  We kids had a blast picking and eating those.  We didn't even care if they were barely more than whitish-green; all they had to have was a slight hint of red, and we thought they were the best things we'd ever tasted.

Anyway, I like the idea of growing a few things in my own yard, since summer produce is so wonderful.  I can see myself getting carried away, though, and planting so much that I can't possibly keep up with it all.  So I think I will keep it simple for my first official year of gardening, and probably plant a few hills of potatoes, a couple tomato plants, some zucchini and yellow squash, and maybe some peppers.  Then closer to the house I'll plant cilantro and basil in big, brightly colored, glazed pottery urns.  (My mom says herbs are easier to tend when they're in planters as opposed to in the ground.  I'll take her word for it.)  They have some gorgeous ones at my local garden center, and the lady told me they'd probably go on sale in the spring. 

Any other fledgling gardeners out there?  Feel free to share your experiences - be they tragedies or triumphs.  I could use all the help I can get!

Sincerely,
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