How Does Your Garden Grow?

The hubby and I finally found a free weekend to plant our garden for the summer.  Last year we had great success for it being our first time having a garden.  We ended up with lots of tomatoes, cucumbers, banana peppers, and a few bellpeppers and eggplants.  We planted lots of the same things this year, but we do have a few things we plan to do a little differently than we did last year (learning from experience!).  These are a few pictures from the process of creating our garden last year:

This was our yard in the morning when we started:

And here it is in the evening when we finally finished:

(My hubby and Parker - our cairn terrier)

We learned very quickly that our little buddy, Parker, liked to dig in the garden.  We placed a fence around it to keep him out and he simply proceeded to jump right over it and dig away (and steal a few plants while he was at it), hence the tall fence you see in the following pictures:

So we are hoping for the same good luck this year (or maybe even better luck!) since I officially do not have a green thumb.  

Here's the "before" condition our garden was in after the winter (lots of weeding to be done!):

Here's the start of our new garden this year:

 (Yes, our neighbors still have their camper parked in the back yard but at least it's clean now!)

We're crossing our fingers that we will have lots of yummy produce to enjoy and share!

On a sidenote, along with re-planting the garden, we filled in some missing gaps in my planter box where flowers had (gasp!) died.  I thought the planter box would get more sun than it actually did, so the only plants that survived were those that needed partial sun (the pink flowers I planted last year).  These flowers were made for me because they even lasted through the winter (we had a few freezes) without me covering them during freezes or watering them when it was warmer.  Therefore, I bought only that kind of flower again this year and I filled the entire planter box with them.  The only slight problem I have with them is that they are not quite the same shade of pink as last year's flowers (although that was the closest pink available at Home Depot). 

Money Saving Tip: Instead of buying 4 individual plants (about the number I needed to fill in the gaps), I bought one hanging planter full of them (for less than the total of the 4 individual ones) and seperated the plants when I got home before planting them.  The only downside of this plan was that the plants had started to grow very stem-y and tall because they had very little room to grow out (rather than full like the one from last year - all the way to the right in the pic).  I think it will even out after they've been in the planter box for a while, but who knows - I'm no expert on planting.

Here's the planter box before:

 And here it is after:

No flowers yet, but they'll be here soon (and often! - another thing I love about these).

I'll post pictures of the flowers' and plants' progress as it happens.  So have you planted anything yet? What grows well in your area? Do you have any tips for us? Share your secrets please! :)