How does my garden grow?

I hate to brag but for not being a gardener and having close to no idea of what I am doing my garden isn't doing too bad.

Here is how it started out:

This is my raised garden box. Bear in mind I had/have no idea of what I am doing so I  just tried to follow the tags that came with the plants. The first row on the left is cucumbers, the second row is green peppers, and the third is lettuce. The entire box on the right is cabbage.

 Here are my strawberry plants. I bought 4 hanging plants and finally planted the strawberry kit I bought. Funny thing about the kit though was I couldn't tell which part of the plants were the roots and which was the stems so I may have planted them upside down. Since nothing has grown in months from the kit I assume I planted it wrong.

 Here are my tomatoes. I am so excited about these. Aren't they pretty?

 And my son wanted grapes so we tried these out too.

 Here is a few weeks later:

Looking good huh?

I have a few small tomatoes growing. 

There are some blossoms on my cucumber plants too!

And look!!! A tiny little strawberry!!!

I've also had a few garden problems:

Mystery hole. I assume something is digging for worms or bugs.

Holes in the cabbage.

Strawberries are being eaten.

 I had weird black rotting spots on my tomatoes. I believe this is blossom rot so I have to add calcium to the soil (if my google searches are correct.)

So far so good...

Sure I haven't gotten a single tomato (thanks to the blossom rot) and most strawberries are tossed out because something else has eaten them before I get a chance to pick them but I do have a promising cucumber sprouting and I realize that I am learning so I am trying to be patient with myself and my plants.

So since this willbe an ongoing learning experience any advice, tips and feedback is always welcome because after all, I'm just starting out and I am learning as I go.

Trying to turn my thumb green!

I love gardens. I adore plants and flowers. I marvel at the birds and bugs they invite. My problem is though... I can't grow anything. I have tried and I can't even get a Chia Herb Garden to sprout! But with two daughters who like me are enamoured of the outdoors and love looking and picking plants I have mustered up the courage to try again. I wouldn't say I am scared of gardening but I feel bad for killing everything. But I am going to try.

I bought some plant kits with bulbs that sprout in water. So far about half have grown! This is huge for me. Others out of the same kit haven't sprouted and I can't tell why but hey... half if awesome.

Also I planted an avocado seed. The seed came from the most delicious avocado I have ever tasted. It was yummy and huge and I wanted my own delicious avocados so I stuck toothpicks in it and stuck it in water. To date it is about three feet tall!!!

This is the avacado that gave me the seed I planted.

At this point I feel like I'm on a roll so I bought a little gardening kit and watering can and a strawberry plant kit which I haven't actually planted yet because of one thing... I realized that despite my enthusiasm I still had no idea what I was doing so I went and got this huge book on gardening (thank you to the Borders clearance).

Now I feel like I am fully equipped to tackle my gardening demons. I can't say I'll actually be able to turn my black thumb green but I will try and I figure as long as the girls have fun and don't get to upset when their flowers never bloom then it will be worth it right?