Planted My Garden Today

I am doing a garden blog for two reasons. 1. So I can see the progress my garden making month to month and 2. to remind me of what I planted and how it all turned out. Last year was my 1st attempt at gardening and it was a total flop. My tomatoes all split and didn't grow very big, both my zucchini and cucumbers never got past a couple of inches before turning yellow and shriveling up. I did get a couple of small bell peppers, beans, lettuce, carrots & herbs, but nothing to great or good for that matter.

I have been doing a lot of research on you tube and one thing I learned was that I probably over watered and didn't have much nutrients in my soil. I am also convinced that the wind and high heat didn't help much either. So this year, I added our horses manure to my soil as a form of compost to help get more nitrogen in the dirt and added an organic plant food all over the soil and also inside each hole where I put a plant/seed. I also moved my raised garden bed up against my porch. I am hoping this will help keep it somewhat protected from our horrendous winds and protect it from the harsh sun. Yes, I know plants like sun, but where I live it tends to be over 100 degrees all summer long. The plants will still get about 6 hours of sunlight and this should also help my lettuce to grow, since they tend to prefer the shade.

On April 3rd, I planted these strawberries in a rectangular pot and we already have 10 little strawberries starting to grow!
I also planted this Betterboy tomato plant on April 3rd. I opted for the pot this year because I watched several videos of tomatoes doing well in a pot and I figured it would give me more room in my garden bed. It is already starting to produce a few flowering buds and has grown a couple of inches since I planted it two weeks ago.
Here is my raised garden bed. It is 4 ft. x 6 ft. and planted the following. Back row L-R: Four Asian Cucumbers, One Zucchini, Three Yellow Crookneck Squash and then two seeds of Kentucky Wonder Beans.

In front of the cucumbers I Romaine Lettuce seeds and Black Seeded Simpson Lettuce seeds. In front of the yellow squash I have a Sweet Bell Pepper and in front of that a regular bell pepper. In the far front right corner is my artichoke and on the left front corner are some green onions. In the rest of the garden I have Walla Walla Onions. I didn't realize when I first planted them that you have to separate them into tiny strands and then barely bury them 9 inches apart. So after I had already planted them in four clumps, I went back out and separated them, causing them to be all over the garden bed. I am really not sure these will take. I had an extra tomato cage, so I just put it over my largest bell pepper plant.
I heard that if you buy green onions in the produce section of your grocery store and only cut off the green part, that you can re-plant them and they will last you an entire year. We shall see!