Experimental garden VS Normal garden

Experimental garden & In ground garden

I Currently have a few different gardens growing.
The first one I will show is the normal garden that is doing quite well.
My Gardens are all amended with compost, peat moss, Epsom salt, worm castings, rockdust and a few other organic fertilizers
I always aim to provide the best possible produce for my family, so I look for OMRI cert label or things I know that are natural.

This first Garden has been going about 4 years and has been re-amended every year, its 16ft x 11ft. This is the family garden as we all help with it.

The decor was added by my wife parents, they are great! The pinwheels actually seem to be keeping the birds away as intended as well.

I decided to use these cattle panels as trellis because of a youtube video I watched, the link is at the bottom of this page.

Winter squash (far left), Peppers, Zucchini, far right is tomatoes

Experimental Garden

In front on the ground is my version of Larry Halls "Rain gutter system" even though it uses a 4 inch PVC pipe instead of a rain gutter. Some might even call it an SIP or self irrigated planter.

These tomatoes were planted at the same time as the ones in the photos above in my traditional garden. clearly they are about double the size.

This plant is a squash, I am not sure if its actually a winter squash or pumpkin. My seeds got mixed up when the ink ran off the plastic name tags. I guess I will know in a few months haha.

Three green pepper plants

Float valve for when it gets connected to a rain water barrel.

The Cover for the float valve is just another 4 inch pvc pipe with a portion taken out so it can snap over the other pipe. This keeps bugs, debris and light out to keep the water reasonably clean.
I am amazed at how fast this self watering planter "Rain gutter system" is letting the plants grow.
I think if my only consideration was how fast they grow it would be a clear winner. The only down side is the soil buying organic soil, vermiculite and peat moss as a base for these massive bags adds up really quick.

links to where I got some of my Ideas: