The City Girl Gardener: Garden Plot Guide 2012

So this is the plot plan that I worked with last year. It seemed well thought out at the time, considering I poured over pages and pages of wikipedia companion plant guides, carefully puzzling and piecing veggies and fruits together to see what fit. One thing that is not mentioned in this plan is that I had 11 hanging baskets hung from the top bars of the greenhouse. In those, I planted 11 more tomato plants (9 were cherry tomatoes that did okay and 2 were big tomato plants that did not do okay) with basil planted on top of the tomato plant roots. Those did well.

Now just bear with me, because I know a lot of what you'll find that I learned from year 1 seems a bit brainless and common-sense, especially if you're a good gardener... but just remember that I had no experience with the exception of watching my great-grandfather when I was 4 years old. And of course, this was back before Pinterest (which was an answer to one of my prayers), and back when I had no idea how to search the internet for adequate gardening tips.

Also, did I mention I don't like to read that much? If I see tons of text, goodbye.

Here's what I learned from this plot guide:

Squash should be trellised. By time I realized this, beetles had eaten the heck out of my plants and it was too late.
Watermelon really should be started indoors a long time before planting them in this plot. Bugs found them fast.
Corn sucks to grow in greenhouses.
Be prepared to have cucumber grow everywhere.
Planting things in hanging baskets, for example upside-down tomato plants, is a bad idea. It's made worse when the water that overflows falls directly onto the plant and everything else around it. Including me.
Planting things in hanging baskets is especially hard to water when you are short and they are hung so high up you rely on a ladder.
Planting things in hanging baskets are VERY hard to harvest when you are very short and rely on a ladder.
Planting basil in hanging baskets, on the contrary, seemed to be a good idea. It worked well!
Cucumbers are ridiculously easy to grow. I had very good success with them, which is amazing since I seemed to be killing everything else.
Beans should be trellised. Even though I read in a book that in the old times Native Americans would plant beans with corn so the beans would grow up on the corn plants... my beans ended up growing much quicker than the corn.
Don't plant brussels sprouts. Just don't.

There's a lot I learned from just the actual puzzle of planting, which makes me 100% more confident about how I plant this year's garden. Experience is the best form of learning, so we will see just how much I learned from last year.

Also, I'm excited that I was able to find a couple photos of my first year garden. It's not much, since I still can't seem to recover the really good ones where it looks like a jungle, but hopefully I will be able to post them later for your viewing enjoyment.