I did not just start, lol, but I can tell you that you cannot buy that taste from fresh picked produce, even at a local farmstand.Best time to pick is morning, before the dew dries, the moisture and sugars are at their peak then. Soil soil soil soil, you must amend your soil with organic material, manure, compost, shavings, get balesl of something called Pro Mix, add it in. Your garden is nothing if you are not making soil. Once my garden is cleaned up, before the hard frost, I often plant oats as a cover , or "green manure". This can be dug back into the soil before it reaches maturity. Marigolds do deter cabbage loopers, but wood ash does too. Test your soil for ph balance, and amedn accordingly.Lime gets the acidity down, manure brings it up. I used reflective "survival blankets" made out of that silver reflective material around my established plants, it provides more light, and most importantly, confuses predator insects, as they think its the sky and will not land on the plants. You should see my butternut squash harvest this year, first time I came up with the idea and I will continue to do so. Dig deep, the more room the roots have, the closer the plants can be grown together, and they will form a canopy so that there is little room for weeds. I do not grow in row beds, I have deep dug beds with some clover in between for paths, white dutch clover, some of the beds are 30 years old and I can stick my arm in up till my elbow, hardly any work come spring.