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We are adding blueberries this year!! So excited!

Thyme, mint, and basil for the herb garden. I have scallions and strawberries in a pot already.

Cucumbers and zucchini were super easy last year, so we'll do it again. We did heirloom and San Marzano tomatoes last year but they took forever to come in, so I think I might just do a smaller cherry or teardrop tomato and see if DS thinks they are fun to pick and eat. I might try a sugar snap peas this year instead of bell peppers and jalapenos. They were more trouble than they were worth last year.

We have a grapevine, a fig tree, and a pomegranate tree that will do their thing. Would like to put in a blackberry and blueberry bush. We planted a new peach tree but that won't do anything for a few years.

@regberadaisy: Thanks! Maybe we will just do regular green beans then - it gets to like 110F here in the summer!

@snowjewelz: Our fig tree is so massive (its like 20 years old), that we have more than we can handle even with all the birds eating them. I just try to get out there every morning and evening to pick what we want. If you tree is smaller, you may try getting some of those nets that go over the top - I'm definitely going to do that when my little peach starts producing!

Luckily the pomegranates have their own skins to protect, although they do burst open and you gotta snatch them quick or the ants and spiders like to get inside them.

@regberadaisy: Ours is mature - again almost 20 years old - and makes big full sized poms. The tree isn't that big - its like 6-7 feet tall and its pretty. I'm 5'8" and I can reach all the fruit on my feet. I think they tend to like hot dry climates however.

http://aggie-horticulture.tamu.edu/citrus/pomegranate.htm

I'm not planting many veggies this year since DS wanted a butterfly garden instead. We have a 12x12 raised bed to plant, so most of it is already planted with butterfly-friendly plants and I threw some bush bean seeds in last weekend and will likely shove some pepper plants randomly about.

@regberadaisy: Our trees are officially crap now. Citrus greening got our entire neighborhood over the past 2 years. The fruit was basically inedible on 3 of our 4 trees. It's sad because they're like 30+ years old, so I hate they went out this way. Boo.

Starting over at our new place, but want to plant zucchini, squash, okra, roma tomatoes, blackberries, and red and green bell peppers. I usually aim to grow only what we can pick fresh and eat weekly, and only grow an excess of the bell peppers to freeze for Winter.

We will grow tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, peas, green beans, kale, lettuce, spinach, radishes, beets, zucchini, summer squash, butternut squash, eggplant, bell peppers, hot peppers, cucumbers, strawberries, rhubarb, and garlic. Oh, and herbs - oregano, basil, chives, maybe some others... I love to garden, are you surprised ?!

@regberadaisy: It's a disease that's a big problem for the citrus industry right now. There's no cure and it's spreading like crazy.

We have seeds started inside since we have a short growing season.

Some of what we are growing includes: tomatoes, cucumber, zucchini, pumpkins, peppers, onions, potatoes, cantaloupe, sunflowers, a variety of flowers, herbs, strawberries, radishes, beats, carrots, cabbage and more that I can't think of right now.

We're sowing from seed heirloom tomatoes (2 varieties), 3 types of pumpkin, sugar snap peas, and a bunch of little flowers (that I don't think will make it because we started too early and it's still too cold outside).

Our new additions from last fall are a Haskap berry bush, garlic, and a bunch of different flowering bulbs. The garlic is spouting like crazy and it looks like the bulbs have all made it (crossing my fingers the deer won't get to them). I have high hopes for the new berry bush.

As for our establish plants: rhubarb (popping up), chives (flourishing), oregano (like a weed), blueberry bushes (that are still so small), sunchokes, strawberries (we just moved these, so hopefully they like their new home), and the apple tree (that's still recovering from being moved) and DH's beloved plum tree that we hope will give it's first fruit this year.

this is so inspiring all I have is my potted fire escape garden in NYC. I grow rosemary, basil, geraniums, and cherry tomatoes. wish I could have a real garden like you all!

@regberadaisy: I'm in Sweden (corresponds to US hardiness zone: 7a (normal winter) to 4b (at its coldest). I find that apples are really hardy. My advice is to check what kind of apples your neighbors have and get those, or find a variety that you especially like. Some are better suited for pies as opposed to eating fresh but mature a lot faster. We inherited our apple tree from the previous owners (it was tiny back then) and we had to transplant it to a more suitable location. We don't know what variety we have.

@winniebee: I grew up with a gardening family, so I always just do what they're doing, but this is the time of year that there should be a lot of gardening shows popping up and they almost all have seminars on getting started. I usually attend our city's Master Gardener festival and a nearby botanical garden's annual garden show. There are vendors/nurseries selling plants and supplies and everyone loves to chat and help out. Florida is already well into planting season, but I'm sure yours isn't for a while, so they're probably going to start happening here in the near future for you. Look into local events.

And I really feel that as long as you have good 6-8 hours of direct sunlight, and some sort of compost/manure tilled into your soil, it's really not that difficult. Water daily in the morning or evening, and things will just grow. You can do it!

What do you guys do about deer? I would love to have a small garden, but we get deer and I am concerned I'd be setting up a salad bar for them!