I feel your pain! I have the opposite problem: my peas get scorched so I'm not planting them this year. Same with a lot of veggies that I could plant in the spring or fall but I'm not that advanced yet to try to spread into multiple season veggie-gardening.

Also, I have decided against expanding into the backyard, for now. I'm just going to focus on taking care of, and filling in, the front yard garden (installing soakerhoses, laying compost and mulch, direct sowing foxglove, cosmos and viola seed). This is more about my time and money limitations than Mother Nature's. My next project will be a seed-starting operation in the basement, so that I can save money by starting perennials from seed for next spring. I might also try to start seed in an east-facing box window this summer for fall transplant.

Newbie- Good idea to prioritize and spend your time on creating the gardens, in the front. That was my biggest challenge last year, starting too many gardens at once! LOL This year, the flower/fairy gardens are all doing very well, so it's time to 'take back' the kitchen garden!

My smaller veggie bed, two years ago, was so pretty...I want to recreate that in the kitchen garden. I mixed together different veggies and herbs, with flowers and had alyssum planted under everything. It was so pretty...and fragrant :)

This year, I'm hoping to split the garden into roughly two thirds perennnial beds (flowers, fruit and herbs) and one third annual beds (veggies, herbs and flowers). The annual beds will all be underplanted with alyssum, which (I hope) will help keep the weeds down. It worked really well in the smaller garden, so I'm hoping it will work well here, too.

I think if I focus on what works (at least for this year) and don't get distracted by what I know will not, I will have more success (and be happier) with my kitchen garden!

Good idea about the alyssum--I think I have some seed for that. Much better than weeds!

What a good topic ll! I think it's great you realized you are better off focusing on what will do good for you, though we all love a challenge sometimes you learn a lesson along the way! I think my eye opener this year relates too my dilemma of what to plant between stepping stones. I realized that as much as I love pics of stepping stones in gardens, I hate the thought of my bare feet on the rocks. So it kinda solved itself, I'll be keeping grass and saving hundreds on flagstone!
I also want to perfect my front garden, I did a good job last year but it needs some tweaking. I can't wait to start to see some plants pop up!

I've finally learned to accept that sun-loving plants won't grow in my shady yard. Yes, there is some sun in some places but probably less than four hours of it.

I've moved my attention to shade plants, and I'm excited. I think my gardens will be better for my finally accepting what I have. Although, *blush*, I did just by a packet of love-lies-bleeding seeds. I guess old habits die hard.