I'm still learning myself. 1 small raised bed that I'm putting in this year will hold my kale and Choi, some scallions maybe, and I might put a 3 year old potted rosemary plant in it permanently, they are cold hardy here supposedly and it needs a new pot larger than I want to manage. I think the rosemary will take off into a full bush. I have another elevated raised bed (on legs) that is full of strawberry plants from last year and peppermint. Everything else I do directly in the ground, but I amend it with garden soil, compost, and coco coir because I have pretty dense clay soil right to the surface. Toledo was built on a swamp, some places you go down a foot and it is yellow sand, others its clay from top to bottom. Rich with minerals though.
The charentais melon has been the biggest challenge, this will be my third year growing them. First year I overcrowded it with cukes and cantaloupes and only got two melons but they were spectacular. Second year I got 4 or 5 melons forming, but it was dry and then heavy rain and two split and rotted before I noticed, and then the plant shriveled and died from too much full sun and heat. This year it goes by itself in a place that only gets sun part of the day. It's basically a small french cantaloupe.
Cherry tomatoes were amazing last year. The plant was a Burbee "Super Sweet 100" I ordered as a plant online from burpee. I grew it like a vine along a chain link fence with two main branches, trimming all the side shoots, and it got to be at least nine feet long. I gave away a couple gallons (I don't know how to measure a bushel lol) and ate just as many. And I had a second beefsteak style tomato that had a few large grapefruit sized tomatoes then did poorly, Bodacious Hybrid from Burpee.
Ok, I feel better now letting that out.
