At my last house I had raised beds - 4' wide by 12-20' long with wooden sides about 1 1/2 foot tall. Over two or three years we built 8 of these large beds plus several smaller beds for perennial crops like stawberries, rhubarb, and horseradish. For that situation, there were several advantages. It allowed us to have flat areas on a hill; we terraced with rock walls and put the beds on those flat areas, surrounded by woodchips for mulch, so there was no weeding at all. The beds were sunk about a foot below the grade, and we had to sift the soil, which was shallow over fractured ledge, to get rid of all the rock, and then we filled the rest of the beds with composted cow manure, thanks to our local dairy farmer. So, we ended up with no weeds & great soil in flat beds from an area that started out mostly rock on a steep grade. Other pluses were sitting on the bed sides to plant, screwing trellises for beans, melons, cukes, etc. directly into the bed sides, and the ablility to plant early due to good drainage and early season warm-up. We also sometimes put plastic hoops over the beds, tucking the hoop ends inside the beds to hold them, to cover with spun-bond or plastic. On our strawberry beds, we put hinged wire mesh covers so the chipmunks couldn't eat the berries. Between mulch and the high organic content of the soil, we only had to water when it had been dry for a couple of weeks or more. Our current house had a pre-existing ground-level garden which we simply took over as was since the house needed a huge amount of work, so that's where our efforts and energy went. I miss the raised beds, and find that I have more difficulty with soil-living bugs like wire worms in my potatoes and cutworms crawling in from the surrounding field. I can't work in the garden as long since I have to bend more or sit on & scoot along the ground. (I'm no spring chicken!) The grass and weeds migrate into the veggie garden from the surrounding field, and the soil needs to be prepped in the fall so I can plant peas, potatoes, etc. earlier in spring since the soil stays cold and wet for much longer. There are two only advantages I can see to the ground level garden: it's easier to till with a machine like a big tiller or tractor if you want to be able to do that, and any crops that need winter warmth can be well mulched and will stay warmer in the ground. Garlic, which is a bit borderline as far as hardiness here, has better survival rates, and my leeks and root vegetables overwinter better with a thick layer of mulch when they are in the ground rather than in a raised bed. So, like Lisa, I will eventually have some of both, but with most of my garden as raised beds and a smaller part of it in the ground.

Agree you don't need potting soil, it does indeed have a different texture. I'm not sold on worm castings, rock dust and mycorrhiza: Worm castings are great compost but any kind of compost can do that job as far as I know. If you have or can get them inexpensively, they sure don't hurt. I have not tried to buy a bag because I make my own compost. Rock dust is what soil is made of, so, if you have soil, you likely have all the trace minerals needed. We had a huge discussion on rock dust here just the other day. If you have done a soil test and find your soil is deficient in a certain mineral - which does happen, just not very often - then you should amend with that mineral. Otherwise you're throwing fruit salad at...fruit salad, and paying for the privilege. As for fungi: they are extremely important for soil and plant health, but they should already be present in soil and compost. Fungi feed on decaying organic matter, so if you have plenty of compost in your soil, you'll have all the fungi you need. But again, it doesn't actually hurt anything. I'm just not convinced it helps if you have otherwise healthy soil.

I would say there are a number of factors that contributed to the growth difference in the Sun Sugar, which you mentioned. 2 weeks longer in their starter container - as mentioned that can cause some stunting. overcrowding - 8 tomato plants in a 4'x8' is crowded, 10 is very crowded and then 20 cuke plants?? ahhh! Even if you removed every sucker, that's not only overcrowded in the soil, but really reduces airflow, which can promote disease. No fertilizer used in the raised beds(whatever soil was added probably had minimal nutrients) water - while your plants in the raised bed probably weren't in dire need of water, they weren't getting the little extra dose. Young transplants need more frequent watering than mature plants, which have large root systems that can search deeper in the soil. They may have been able to squeak by with the rainfall, but that raised bed has a lot of mouths to feed. That's not to say that your plants in the raised bed won't produce delicious fruit and be healthy, but they weren't babied as much as your container plant. Adding high nitrogen fertilizer is not truly what you want, unless you plan on eating tomato leaves :-p A balanced fertilizer is what you want, so the plant can grow, but also produce flowers and fruit(which require the P and K as well). Ya live and ya learn! That's what gardening is all about!

Beautiful garden. I think it will be difficult to keep grass looking good around raised beds unless you have a lawn mowing company and then it will not be a problem. As' localeater' mentioned I would not use pea gravel. Seeing your beautiful garden I would not use any kind of gravel, but I think a stone path between the two beds and from the patio would look good. Of course if later you decide that that is not the place for your beds then it would look silly to have a path from the patio to the middle of your lawn. Good luck on your garden.