Now, that success rate is WAY better than mine at my first attempts.

Did you start all these from seeds? Have you tried this using the Winter Sowing method? I am not quite sure whether it works well in your climat, but please chek out the Winter Sowing forum. It's really fun and gives us a chance to get our hands dirty in the middle of winter.

And the success rate is phenominal.

I didn't start the thyme, lavender or tarragon from seeds, but the others I did.

I tried winter sowing native wildflower seeds last year, but I live on a steeply sloping lot, so we had a nice bunch of flowers at the bottom of the slope.... :-)

I'm hoping I can grow cool weather plants this winter. Kale, spinach, peas, etc. Although we do get frosts here, so I don't know how that will go.

This has been a tremendous 1st year -- learned what is crabgrass, japanese beetle, dog vomit mold, bagworm, aphids, rust, powdery mildew, leaf spot, whiteflies, needlecast, tree girdling, sunscald, slug, rabbit damage, playdough clay soil.

Failures? 1 dead spruce, 1 dead maple, 1 dead lilac, 1 half-dead maple, 1 half-dead lilac, rusty backyard grass.

"Successes"? 1 half-alive lilac, 1 half-alive maple, my backyard finally has some grass! Some other trees and shrubs planted this year seems to be doing ok (cross fingers, touch wood) but I'll wait to see if they make it through winter. Composting is fun. Compacted clay soil is showing some signs of life.

This year's focus was putting in trees and shrubs, next year will be perennials and some edibles. Bet I'll have another set of diseases and pests to learn about :) I'll be giving winter-sowing a try too. It sounds fun and any failure is way cheaper and less painful.

It's a little early to be talking resolutions, but next year, I hope to feed the soil with more organics, cover more bare spots with plants, be less hysterical when something wilt.

Dog vomit mold?!? EWW. I hope it was outdoors, and not tucked behind the couch like our cats tend to do! :-)

Sounds like you've had a rough year. Better than my first year, though.

We're composting in earnest now, finally. We have three pallet bins *FULL*. But we're not doing fast composting. We're just gonna turn it once or twice and then let it sit there until next spring. And we're doing one trench compost. It's amazing how much stuff we have available for composting.

Wow - your success with plants from seed is great! This is my first year gardening, and:
Failures: about 10 different kinds of herbs I tried to grow from seed - all dead; one dead mock-orange; several dead portulacas (over-watered); didn't use enough mulch, and what I did use promoted weeds

Sucesses: herbs planted from store-bought plants - sage, thyme, basil, lavendar, parsley, oregano; moved 2 rose bushes and didn't kill them; eradicated aphids on a viburnum; brought roses back from black-spot (learned about black-spot), and actually had some nice flowers on annuals

To be determined: bulbs in the spring, and my perrenial survival. Also, I planted a wisteria...hope I'm up to the pruning challenge.

This forum is a great place to learn and get inspired by other's success.

said:
Wow - your success with plants from seed is great!

well, this was my 3rd year and it took several tries for each of those seeds. I know I planted at least 100+ "plants".

But I am proudest of my elephants:

Shortly before harvest:

Scroll down to compare the garlic bulbs to a woman's glove:

And I was able to save seeds from the basil plant. Don't know yet if they'll germinate or not.