I was talking about gardening recently with one of my gardening-type neighbors while we stood in my backyard. I looked around at my thriving but still-needing-attention plants and started into my "would have, should have, could have" list. 

I appreciated the nice reminder. There's no point in feeling bad about having a less-than-perfect garden or failing to accomplish every possible task. There’s more joy found in gardening by taking the half-full approach. We did put in a pretty great garden this year. We tended our plants and watched them grow, and we enjoyed them immensely. That's what we need to celebrate.

Gardening is always a study in risk. The weather and the seasons are unpredictable, especially it seems here in Michigan. Nearly recording-setting temperatures or much higher-than-usual rainfalls — we don't know what is coming until it gets here. We can't be sure whether it will be a good year for tomatoes or a lousy one, Farmer's Almanac predictions aside. The whole process has an uncertain outcome but is potentially full of rewards. We can plan carefully and work hard to make our gardens lovely and productive, but at least some results are out of our hands no matter what we gardeners do. We have to give ourselves credit for our efforts as well as our harvests.

When contemplating the gardens of 2010, take time to take stock of your gardening successes as well as your dreams and plans for improvements next year. We invite you to take a stroll through your garden — physically or mentally — and tally up what you've got to be happy about.

What were you most pleased with in your garden this year? Which crop or plant exceeded your expectations? What can you celebrate? Use the poll below to vote for your most successful plants; you can vote for more than one. Or leave more details about your gardening successes in the comments.

Janice and Jim Leach garden a backyard plot in downtown Ann Arbor and tend the website 20 Minute Garden.