My husband, my son and I share our garden dreams before we start planning and ordering seeds for the new growing season. Every year our son dreams of growing tall gigantic sunflowers. This year he also wants cucumbers, tomatoes, bugs and more visits to the goats and the snowball stand near our community garden at the Howard County Conservancy.

My husband dreams of installing a drip system so we can work in the garden (and visit the goats and snowball stand) while the plants are being watered. He also wants to combine the garden beds, reduce the walking paths and cover more plants with row covers so the plot has intensive plantings thus more produce and less bug damage.

I dream of a longer growing season so I can cook from our garden harvest all year. I want to plant new types of veggies and make a cold frame. For additional crops in early summer and late fall I would like to try planting leeks, shallots and peas and Asian greens, broccoli and kohlrabi along with our regular crops of tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, zucchini, sweet potatoes, white potatoes, carrots, beans, spinach, turnips, greens and herbs. But, my biggest garden dream for 2011 is that our family has fun together with each other and other gardener friends in our community garden.

What are some of your garden dreams for 2011?