How did my Garden Grow

Last year, I started gardening, and I didn't expect -anything- to grow, but my optimism held out, and guess what!  I grew things!  Not all of it turned out, but some of it did, and to be totally honest, I didn't even expect  one vegetable to be edible, but surprisingly, I had tasty lettuce all the way until September.  And while I had a good slug problem, it wasn't bad enough to actually render the lettuce crops useless.  Sprinkling salt around the garden helped keep them out, until one day I forgot to move said slugs.  They made a dead slug bridge over my salt boundary.  Eeeew.

Though out the summer, I.. ignored the garden.  Aside from this picture, I don't think I tended it, except to pick lettuce and the occasional weed.  Ok, the weeds actually took over quickly once I just didn't take the time to pull them as often.

Regardless, at the end of september, I decided to go ahead and pull everything up so that the yard had time to heal before we moved.  That didn't go so well, but we can pretend, right?  Here's what I managed to pick that day:

Yep, I picked those WAY too early.  That's ok though.  I liked the taste of the big purple carrot.  The smaller ones tasted rather sour for carrots.  Not pictured is my garlic.  Those turned out fairly wonderfully.  By that, I mean that I could actually cook with them even though each bulb consisted of three cloves.  Tiny but useful.  Next year, I'll be more patient.


First year I learned:

- Be patient.  It'll grow eventually.
- It requires more work than you think.
- I can't successfully grow things above ground yet, though my root veggies do well.
- The internet was correct when they told me that broccoli would bolt to seed quickly in heat.  As in, overnight.
- Small animals around here feel the need to unearth garlic.  Maybe they only like mine.

Did you grow a garden last year?  Or ever before?  Share your tips in the comments!