Garden Planning

So I just got our Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds catalog today. There are some awesome things in there!
Last year was the first year that we had our planter boxes so I bought some organic seed packets at Lowe's/Home Depot, read the instructions on the packets and started planting. Most of it seemed to work out pretty well. The strawberry seeds that I did order didn't grow, I planted carrots and onions but either birds or lizards were eating the sprouts. I had also planted corn and one day the sprouts were there, the next they were gone. I think I planted the watermelon a bit late and then ran out of space to plant any pumpkins. I put a carton around the remaining tomato sprout and broccoli which seemed to save them and then planted a few more things and attached some netting to the top of the boxes to give them a fighting chance. We did grow some amazing and large zucchini, some sugar snap peas, pickling cucumbers, yummy green beans and sweet tomatoes.

But it was a learning year and the kids were still able to help plant the seeds and watch them sprout and grow and produce vegetables. They would say, "look the seed I planted sprouted!" with excitement and pride in their voices.

Over the fall I pretty much just let the garden go. The weeds (mostly tall grass) grew in and around the boxes. So this past week while Robert took Kiera to her gymnastics class Domenic and I went out back and started weeding. Nathan had gone to watch Kiera. I was able to clear out 1 box and most of the weeds around it. Today I cleared out another box. Two more to go! I figured if I work in the garden at least a little bit every day/every other day I'll be able to start planting soon.

This year for planting I drew out what I want to grow and where I want to plant it. I've researched how to amend the soil (though I need to look at that again) and we have netting to protect the little sprouts.
So our list off the top of my head is, more strawberries, sweet onions, zucchini, garlic, pickling cucumbers, green beans, spinach, carrots, corn and cucumbers. We still have our grape vines and tomato plants that I need to fertilize along with our few fruit trees. Along the side of our driveway we're going to plant watermelon and then in the summer pumpkin.

So, I'm excited and if you have any suggestions or helpful tips those would be greatly appreciated! Please don't hold back. I could use the help. :)