Hellobee Boards

I do!
We have raised beds and grow tomatoes, basil, lemongrass, squash, zucchini, a couple of different kinds of peppers, and strawberries. We're going to add in some peas or green bead or both this year. I don't have any tips or tricks - I'm quite the novice!

@Weagle: They don't bother them, but we have a big dog who tends to kill squirrels so I think they're scared! A friend of mine painted some round stones red and set them out for a few weeks when the tomatoes were still green, so when the real tomatoes were ripe, the squirrels and birds mistook them for the stones and stayed away.

We have a big garden every year! Unfortunately, my husband is the green thumb, NOT me. We've done everything from container gardening, to traditional gardening, to something called the Back To Eden method (I highly recommend googling for the Back To Eden video!), and Farmer Man is interested in implementing more permaculture ideas into our property.
As far as what we grow, our basics from year to year are various herbs, different varieties of tomatoes, red potatoes (grew 600 pounds one year!), lettuce/salad greens, sweet corn, lots if pumpkins and squash, radishes, turnips, kohlrabi, um, um, I can't remember what else, lol. I'm trying to get an asparagus bed established, we have attempted a strawberry bed TWICE (I can't remember what happened the first time, but there was an incident involving a broken water line under the garden and a backhoe and, yeah, they didn't survive), going to try again this spring. So far, rhubarb is the only perennial we have thriving.

Here are our tomatoes from last year. We grow them alongside the south end of the house where it's the sunniest. We used to have a bunch of herbs there, but I decided to make room for the tomatoes instead.

We have a tiny raised bed filled with rhubarbs nearby. I don't think it really matters what you grow your plants in, as long as you start them off with good soil and they get a lot of sun (and of coarse water).

We visited a famous garden with wonderfully grown veggies and all they had were long peices of wood in the ground. Not even boxes, just parallel peices of wood to keep the soil in. Having a nicely made raised bed is great (and looks great), but it's not essential.

We have several raised beds and grow heirloom tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, beans, herbs, patty pan squash, and cucumbers. I want to try lettuce/kale/spinach next year too.

What do you grow?
This year we're growing from seed: Brandywine tomatoes, Sugar Ann snap peas, Dill's Atlantic Giant pumpkin, Spaghetti squash, and dinosaur kale (Nero di Toscana).

We also have established plants that grow back each year:
Rhubarb, strawberries, wild strawberries, blueberries, lemon thyme, chives, lemon balm.

New plants we'll likely plant (not from seed): sage and pepper, blueberries (diff variety). I almost forgot the sunchokes we planted last autumn. It's our first time growing them, so we'll see if they come up this summer.

Our planting routine
We like to buy garden soil and mix it with our compost. We also add bone meal and cow manure before planting. First time we bought the manure is when we didn't have enough compost and I was surprised it was like normal soil and it didn't smell! Now we buy a bag every year.

Tips
Bury your tomatoes. Take the leaves off the bottom and bury them deep. It'll grow roots as far up as you bury them. If you start tomatoes from seed indoors, be sure to slowly introduce them outside. We got lazy last year and our tomatoes (the leaves at least) look horrible because of it. They lived, but were really sad looking for a long time.

Make sure to cut the growing tip when the season is almost nearing the end, that way the plant can concentrate on ripening the tomatoes and not growing more flowers. We also like to pinch out suckers (new shoots that grow between the main stem and leaves). Tomatoes like long watering as opposed to frequent shallow watering (to help promote strong, deep roots).

What I'd love to get tips on
Growing pumpkins!