Getting the hang of gardening?

I'd like to think that after a couple of years at it we are finally getting to grips with growing our own veggies. The reality, though, is that there's much to learn and we remain mere beginners. Still, the photos perhaps do more than justice to our efforts.

First some lettuce. So far we've grown most of our plain lettuces from seedlings. (We have a good, cheap supply of seedlings for all the standard things at the local Sunday market.) Also in the picture, but not quite so easy to pick out, are other leafy salad things -- some mustard varieties (courtesy of friend Roger), rocket, and right at the back the tomatoes at an early stage of development. To the right of the front-most bed you might even see some onions. These things are all relatively simple to grow, it seems, and they give us no major problems (if you ignore slugs, snails, lack of water and the like).

In this second photo of beds on a different terrace, there are beans at the back. They also provided for us well this year -- we had some tens of kg of the various types we planted. In front is a mixed bed -- carrots, chillies, cucumbers (usually reasonably successful) and even bitter gourd (tried for the first time and easier than expected).

By the end of this year's growing season, we had a freezer full of tomatoes and french/runner beans. Just about everything else got eaten as it ripened, aside from some vegetables that store well -- the kabocha and beetroot.