Gardening

I signed up for a gardening class at the library. It's called "Grow It; Eat it." I'm pretty excited about the class. I want to grow my own veggies, but I'm a little unsure about some things. I tried to grow somethings last year. I got basil, green pepper and strawberry plants. The basil did great and provided lots of great usable leaves that were so yummy. The strawberries seemed to be doing well for a while, but then the berries either got half eaten or rotted out I'm not 100% sure. We got like 2 small strawberries to eat out of the entire crop. The green peppers didn't fair much better. I have a feeling it was because I did those both in pots instead of directly in the ground like the basil. Hopefully I'll learn a lot in class and be able to get a better crop this year. Is it called a crop when it's just a few plants in your back yard?