Crochet! ... and potatoes?

I'm trying to teach myself at the moment. I've got a pile of books from the library full of tips and patterns, and I bought "Stich 'N' Bitch, The Happy Hooker" by Debbie Stoller which is the one I'm currently using to teach myself. I've found out english and americans name the stitches differently so the ones I'm learning are the american names at the moment. Here's my very first crochet attempt:
It's darker blue than that. I completed it a few days ago but only just uploaded the photo. It's a 4inch square(ish) of single crochet (double crochet in english?), and don't laugh, but it took me about 5 hours to figure it out and make *is embarrassed*

Now I don't know whether to do another sample square to teach myself the other common stitches, or to just throw myself into a simple pattern so I can try to make something, but I don't know what I want to make either, and patterns look like a foreign language still.....

Also, I don't know why but I can feel the veg growing itch starting up again. It usually waits till March or April, but I'm distinctly feeling the need to pick my potato type and start my tomato seeds off. It's bloody freezing outside so I'm going to stick to planning for now and hold off on the planting till at least February. I may have to buy my seed potatoes soon though, I'm going to nip in B&Q to see what they've got on offer....