First experience with a small garden

Let's take a look at my small garden.

I've never been a very successful gardener, but this unusual year seemed like a good time to see if I could remedy that.

My yard backs up to green space with tall cedar and fir trees. Makes for a beautiful park-like setting, but casts shade over the backyard for much of the day. Not ideal for a garden.

The remedy -- raised garden beds on wheels! I can move them to capture more sunlight as needed.

They came unassembled, but with good instructions. So, 96 screws later (each), they were ready to go.

Added the liners and the soil.

Ready for the plants -- at first just some lettuce (plants from nursery), yellow squash and spaghetti squash (I grew from seed). Planted a few marigolds too. Hoping these would help with pollination and deter unwanted pests. Not sure if they helped, but they didn't hurt.

I added a couple pumpkin and zucchini plants a couple weeks later.

The lettuce did really well and we enjoyed several salads. The squash and pumpkins began to take hold and really start growing.

And growing, and growing -- obviously, these are not ideal plants for this type of garden bed!?! Had to add a small table and a raised board for the squash and pumpkin to spread out. Oh well, live and learn.

On the bright side, I'm thrilled that I have at least one pumpkin and a few spaghetti squash growing very nicely. Looks like the yellow squash and zucchini may have only male flowers and no fruit. I still consider this a win for my first experience.

Thanks to those who took a peak at my post. Do you have any experience with small raised garden beds? Any suggestions for plants that would be best suited for this?

All imagines in this post are original works by @senseofwonder.