Happy St. Patricks Day!

Well, I must confess that I don't have a drop of Irish blood in me, nope I'm 50% Polish and 50% Lithuaian, but St. Patricks is a fun way to break up a week & you've got to love its color! I sent my daughter to school with a Flashing Shamrock necklace- how long do you think that it will last before driving the teacher totally batty?!!?

I've still been working on my gardening journal and figuring out the best route in succession planting to take within a square foot garden. Since I have such a limited space to dedicate to my garden, 8' x 20', I figure this is my best option for optimum harvest results. I did have to tell my daughter that we weren't going to plant corn this year. She wasn't exactly a happy camper. Unfortunately corn takes a fair amount of space since you have to plant 4 rows for proper pollination. Then there is the great corn incident of last year. Our corn was still going strong in early October when we had to go out of town for a wedding. I promised my daughter that we would harvest the corn when we got home. Well, upon getting home we discovered that our corn had been decimated by some critters! Now I have no problem sharing some of my harvest with the critters that roam around but I do have a problem with "donating" the entire harvest! We have some wooden flower boxes near our garden and lined up, all neat in a row were the eaten clean corncobs! It was very disappointing! That said I'm going to try a few other things this year instead of corn. Eggplant and garbonzo beans are topping the list.

What are you planning on planting in your garden this year? Do you have any tips for keeping critters at bay? (Please keep tips non harmful!) Have you already started planting?