Learning from my mistakes

Is it Thursday? Let's call this a 13 for Thursday, then.

Thirteen garden lessons I must not forget:
1. Keep the garden small - every square inch you till is a square inch that needs to be weeded
2. Water every day - our soil is mostly sand and it is impossible to overdo it - very possible to underdo it
3. Pull weeds when they are tiny and every day if possible. As Shakespeare put it, "Sweet flowers are slow and weeds make haste."
4. Trellis everything that sprawls (item #1)
5. Inspect plants regularly for pests - check the internet to identify unknown insects.
6. When a pest is discovered, kill it - squishing with the thumb and forefinger works well.
7. Mulch is not essential after all, but it is very helpful.
8. Don't put out dry straw (at $4.50 a bale) on the garden on a windy day - better to use half-rotted, wet straw
9. Sink a fence around the garden for gophers (or are they moles) to bump their little pointy heads on before they eat the roots out from under everything
10. Don't expect the kids to want to help. At least not for more than 30 seconds.
11. Do expect the kids to help when they can do the most damage. Make sure the hose is not on full blast when the kids are around the tiny, tender seedlings.
12. Only grow what everyone wants to eat, not what you know you can grow easily - nothing like an unwanted harvest of turnips (although we did discover a fondness for turnip greens in salads).
13. If I don't want Matt to mow it down, it must be surrounded by bricks or cinder blocks or paving stones or something.