While I was living in Africa, I rented my house in Tennessee to a nice young couple. They put in a small, raised garden on the side of the house. I know next to nothing about gardening, but I'm learning. From their efforts, I had lots of strawberry plants and strawberries, but I think they are getting old by now so may need replacing.

In the spring, I add garden soil. My idea was just to spread it around. But when I had help from one of my African friends, he assured me that the new soil needed to be mixed in with the old soil. Since he was doing the hard work, I agreed, and it made a difference. 

Last year, my two best crops were grape tomatoes and okra. I had one tomato vine that really liked where it was. It was huge and spread out all over the place. I had learned on some video how to trim the suckers, and that made an enormous difference. If it isn't producing fruit, cut that baby off. That is true for a lot of things: activities, relationships, worry.

My okra plants (about 5 of them) grew to over six feet! They each produced one or two pods occasionally, but never enough to make a meal. On the advice of a friend, I put them in the freezer until I had enough to eat. Unfortunately, I didn’t remember that when I was cooking and ended up with a lot of frozen pods. This year, I dug them out and committed to cooking them, if any of them seemed okay. It turned out they were all just fine, and I have roasted or fried them all. Yes, I grew up in the South, and we eat and enjoy okra. Okra is also very popular in Sudan. Did you know that if you chop okra into pieces, dry them in the sun, and then pound them into a powder, you can take that powder and put it in a stew, and it will go slimy? It’s true, and that is how the Sudanese do it when okra is out of season.
 

I planted some green beans, but they didn’t make it last year. This year, they are doing better, but of the 10 I planted only two came up. Still, I have enjoyed throwing my string beans in with other vegetables and eating them.
 

Another tip I got from a video on gardening was to plant chrysanthemums in the garden to ward off unwanted bugs. Last year, I had more flowers than vegetables, so I planted fewer of them this year. So far, the bugs are still after the green beans.