It's about a year since I began the community garden experiment, and I really owe all of you an update on just how my garden has grown. Overall I suppose it's been a success, but I have (perhaps unrealistically) high standards, and I can't honestly say it's been a screaming success. Oh, you and I might both have heard my garden screaming at times, but let's not confuse that with success.

I had spinach and broccoli rabe and one kohlrabi last fall. When spring arrived and the soil came back to life I planted shelling peas and more spinach with great enthusiasm. The peas were good; as crisp and sweet as the ones I used to snap from my mother's garden. I didn't harvest huge quantities of them; the limitations of my plot make it challenging to provide the necessary staking. (That said, some of my neighbours have managed impressive staking for their beans).

That warm spring weather worked wonders on the spinach. One day in May they were just wee green leaves. A week later they had become a thriving spinach forest, and I harvested huge bags of delicious, not-dirty spinach about twice a week until the heat made it bolt. The spinach perhaps was my biggest success; it almost had me believing I was a real gardener.

My garlic did well too. I'd need a bigger plot to grow all the garlic I'd like to, but what I planted did well and I harvested six or seven robust bulbs of lovely, sticky stuff.

The beets have been a mystery. They grow pretty well, and the greens have been nice, but the root doesn't have much flavour. I don't know if it's the variety I chose, or more likely something I am not doing to the soil. There seem to be a number of things you're supposed to do to soil in order to make various plants happy, and I'm pretty clueless about them all.

I'm not good at managing the space. I plant most things too close together and they create shade or crowding issues. I planted too much lettuce, and ornery as plants can be, the lettuce did well because I didn't care about it, and don't even really like it that much.

I'm not great at managing my time either. The garden is about a half hour walk from home, each way, and it's hard to make time in my busy schedule to tend it, water it, weed it and love it as regularly as I know I should. I wish I had a plot closer to home; I'm sure this would make a difference. Or maybe that's just an excuse.

I've learned a lot: a little about the science of gardening, quite a bit about the nature of people, politics and social groups, and tons about what it takes to grow food. The experiment has left me with more respect than ever for farmers. I know for a fact that without them I would starve to death. And I'm deeply grateful for everything they do.

I've planted a winter garden, more spinach and beets and some onions. Carrots too, but they won't appear until spring. I still don't think I'm managing the space very well. What I need is one of those square-foot gardening gurus to tell me exactly what to plant, and where, and when. So if you're reading this, and if you're a square-foot gardener, we need to talk. Please.

Then again, I'm honestly of two minds. Sometimes I think I just leave the poor plants in the hands of people better equipped to care for them. Sometimes I think I should give up on gardening and stick to the things I'm really good at. Like making pizza, buying perfect tomatoes and eating toast with jam.