Even though it’s February, I find myself drawn to looking out the window, into the garden and the backyard. It’s a hopeful feeling as I’m planning, thinking about plants and things I might want to try this year.

Last year I did a little research on growing food. I must admit I don’t love every vegetable on earth, but learning about growing them has given me a new appreciation and taste for what certain veggies taste like when they’re straight out of the ground.

Have you grown a tomato plant at home? I haven’t always liked eating tomatoes. I tend to pull them off most sandwiches, because they’re squishy and so many of them have very little taste.

My foray into backyard edible gardening started three years ago with a Roma tomato plant and a yellow squash. The squash wouldn’t STOP growing, and after watering, tending, and generally over-loving that tomato plant, it gave me the juiciest, reddest tomatoes I had ever tasted.

I fell in love with a book by Mel Bartholomew called Square Foot Gardening – where you carefully amend your soil to support more plants in a small space than you could in a normal garden – and you create raised beds to ensure that your plants have their best chance.

So this year, I’m taking matters into my own garden. I’ve spent the entire winter plotting and planning and I’m planning edible world domination! I started a gallery of some of the photos from last year’s garden over at HGTVGardens’ new site. Go look if you have a sec. I’ll share some photos too of the cedar planter boxes I built for the yard.

Leave a comment and share what you’re planning to grow this spring!