Lovin the garden

I have never had much interest in vegetable gardening before this past year but I am absolutely loving it! I am participating in a CSA program through F.A. Farms this year and have been so happy with it. Walter Haugen is the farmer and he is so knowledgeable and made it look so easy that I thought I would try a small raised bed this year and it's been great. I still have a TON to learn and have already learned what NOT to do next year but it's been a great trial and error start for a bigger garden next year. I planted radishes, two kinds of lettuce, chives, lemon cucumber, a couple of different kinds of squash, parsley, cilantro and basil. I have made lots of yummy salads, froze pesto made from my basil and used the parsley several times. The chives are pretty scrawny so I'm not sure what I did wrong there. The squash plant is HUGE but the flowers seem to fall off instead of producing the actual squash. One problem I have been having is slugs. I found some "eco-friendly" slug bait that I might try later but I'm going to start with the beer. If that doesn't work I am going to get copper tape and put it all around the bed as the copper gives them a little shock and makes them turn around. I think the copper tape will be my best bet and the most eco-friendly as well. It also happens to be the most expensive but won't need to be replaced (just cleaned with ammonia once it tarnishes).
Another mistake I made was to plant things way to close together. This was my very first experience with a garden of any kind so I had no clue what I was doing. The lettuce is too close and the radishes were too. I had to pull over half the radishes out just to thin them. I also won't plant radishes again, the worms love them too much.
I can't wait to expand the garden next year with at least two more raised beds. I also can't wait to put my worm compost in the garden. I'll try to post some pics of my before and after garden in the next couple of days. The soil was amazing and I'm sure that's the reason everything grew so fast.