Green Thumb?

When I was growing up, we always had a garden. From my earliest memories in Texas of picking cute little squash, to dashing out in the dead of winter to pick a handful of kale for supper in Ohio, to the monstrously huge garden that we borrowed a lady's back yard for in North Carolina, to the garden where we lost legos in at the house I still live in in my dreams at night... we always had a garden. My dad still has a garden every year - with really cool stuff growing in it, like asparagus and strawberries, hollyhocks and brussel sprouts. He can even grow a mean eggplant for my mom (she's the only one who eats that - yuck!). (He likes to tell the story about one year when he was planting the eggplant seeds, he planted each seed upside down and said "Don't grow" very quietly to each one.)
The last time I had a garden was 5 years ago, when I would go out to weed around the plants and Jacob would sit on each tomato plant. I really don't have a very green thumb. But I've been thinking about trying a garden again. I'm much encouraged by the tomato plant Jacob planted in a styrofoam cup a year ago in kindergarten which is still very much alive on my kitchen windowsill. So I asked and my dad is coming next week to help me get a garden started. The lack of full sun in the yard, drought, many neighborhood cats, red clay, and a bazillion squirrels are only minor setbacks. Okay, so the agricultural extension man said the squirrels will eat my tomatoes. But he also said that they probably would leave the green beans and squash alone.
So look out, kiddos. You are about to become master weeders and veggie pickers...