Pics of what you're all responsible for...and more questions

First, I have to thank all of you for sharing your gardening advice. I don't often post here, but I often "eavesdrop", and I wanted to share photos of the garden you've all played a part in creating. I LOVE IT!! We rebuilt our raised beds last fall (the ones the previous owners had put in were rotting), and were able to increase the size of the garden some. We've now got pole beans, bush beans, edamame, cukes, tomatoes, basil, arugula, squash, zucchini, leeks, and swiss chard, and are finishing up on snow peas. And it's by far my "happiest" garden ever (and most ambitious), thanks to all the advice from DG members. I work from home, and I probably go out to "check" my garden 5 times a day; it just makes me unbelievably happy. Ok, now my questions:
1) my cukes are outgrowing the tomato cages and spiral stakes I'm training them onto. Should I pinch them off or something? I hate to lose any cukes; I'm actually planning on attempting pickles this year.
2) I put in a strawberry pyramid so that the beds can be devoted to everything else. but the pyramid is pretty full now, so what should I do with all the runners?
3) the pole beans have outgrown the poles by about 2 1/2 ft. Should I just let them keep twining together and see how they do?
4) anyone know the best way to freeze all the beans I'm getting? I think the production is going to start to outpace our ability to eat....
5) Is it OK that my tomatoes look like a jungle, despite stakes and cages? Will they still do OK? 'Cause I count on being able to freeze enough to supply us with salsa until next summer!
Again, thanks to everyone who makes this such an informative site! Here's a pic of my baby-

Here are the cucumber plants, with rhubarb in front

tomatoes, basil, and pole beans

What a healthy garden!

I always just let my cucumbers and beans keep growing. They will begin to trail back downward and will still produce veggies. I'd bet you could run a search for freezing green beans and come up with the info you need for that (it's not hard at all). Tomatoes should be fine. I wouldn't prune any of the veggies.

By the looks of your garden I'd just leave it alone. Try to support the runners as best you can. And eat lots:-) Great garden!

Wow, looks like a million bucks! Whatever you are doing, deep donig it.

When we used to grow beans, we used to just get a strainer, and a pot of boiling water. We would put one bag worth (4 servings, if that helps) of beans into the strainer, dip it in the boiling water for 45 seconds, and then take it out. Rinse with cold water or just let cool, dump in the bag, and mark before tossing in the freezer.

Your garden is outright astounding. Beautiful.

Your garden looks incredible. Share your knowledge! Have you done a lot of composting?

Wow, I can't believe I'm being asked to share my knowledge! I feel like such a poseur; I still feel like I'm flying by the seat of my pants, even with all the excellent advice on this site. Anyway, yes, we compost like crazy, and were lucky enough to be able to fill our new beds last fall with composted leaves that the neighbors were getting rid of, so they'd have room for the next round. Then in the spring we topped off with more of our own compost, and a couple bags of purchased topsoil. I know I've read about people covering new planting areas with plastic for awhile, to kill the weed seeds I guess; didn't do that, and had to weed like crazy until I finally put down buckwheat hull mulch. I think between the compost and luck with the weather (we've had rain every few days, and the weather hasn't been too hot until today), I've been avoiding most of my past gardening problems. Now that we're moving into the nasty days of summer, I'm hoping I can keep it looking as good. And I'm hoping that by having carefully planned and arranged this garden, I can manage some amount of "crop rotation", compost again like crazy next spring, and continue to keep the soil healthy. Crossing my fingers....

Hi patterntracy
Last year I had so many tomatoes and no time to can them, I just cut the core out and put them in to freezer bags whole, froze them, This winter when it was cold and snowing I canned on the weekend, when I had time, Most of the time I get out what I needed and ran hot water over them and the skin came right off, I ran them through the blender, to make juice for soup. Isn't gardening fun, Look at the money you are not spending at the store! flip

Great tip, flip, thanks! I spent some time yesterday blanching and freezing beans--they're coming in WAY faster than we can eat them. Cucumbers are my next thing to tackle, but this whole canning thing looks a bit daunting to me. But yes, this gardening thing is a blast; I love heading out every morning to see what needs picking, and my kids are excited to eat food that we've grown ourselves. And I love looking at the prices as I pass the produce section, and think about how much I'm saving, and how much fresher our veggies are. Next year, though, I've really got to try doing peppers....!

Hi again patterntracy;
When I do my beans, Green, Yellow, Purple, I blanch them for three min and throw them in ice water. I start my next batch. Back to the first batch, after 5 min cool down, in the ice water, I pull them out and drop them in my salad spinner, I put them on a tray in the freezer, After fifteen min or so I put the beans in the vacuum sealer bag and suck the air out. Date the bag and throw them in the freezer. When I want beans for a meal I get out a bag and dump them in a steamer pot and steam for five min, With a little butter, salt, pepper, a little garlic. MMM a meal fit for Kings and Queens, even the kids clean up their plates. When you grow your beans next year try a bean called Dragon Tongue it's a yellow with red markings broad flat bean. It's so good, great taste, great bean flavor, Each year I plant about 1/2 lbs of them. I hope you have a Great Bean Harvest this year and next. Don't forget that if you miss picking some beans let them go for another two weeks. Then you can pick them, I pull the whole bean plant out of the ground an hang them up to dry, in a dry place, I use my basement. When the bean pops out of the shell they are dry. You now can take the dry beans and put them in a glass jar with a cover. You can now use these beans for soup, baked beans, etc, etc. Fresh beans you don't have to soak them all day like the old dry store beans. I hope I gave you some ideas for you to use. flip

Thanks for the dried bean tip; how cool! I hate to waste anything, so thank you. And I'll have to try Dragon Tongue next year; with a name like that, the boys'll love it! I've also seen some tomato discussions that have me dying to try more interesting varieties than what I've been doing. Ahhh, it's all so much fun.
By the way, they were recently handing out the home vacuum sealers for free; I used it yesterday with my beans. What timing!

What a wonderful looking garden you have there........congrats, your hard work has paid off in more ways than one. You and your kids can eat food you've grown yourself and it tastes so much better, you know what is NOT on it. You have also instilled in them the seeds for future gardens, after all, they are the future.

As to tomatoes, we had too many of the grape ones last year so DH sealed them in the seal-a-meal bags whole. I've made many batches of spaghetti sauce with them. Just take them out to thaw and place them into a colander to drain cause they'll be full of water.

As to peppers, I'm glad we're growing them, I noticed the price at the grocery........98ea. for green ones and the red/yellows were 2/$5............unbelievable!

I am so encouraged to see a newbie garden that is so beautiful! I am growing my first garden with cukes, tomatoes, celery, green and jalopena peppers, celery, carrots, squash and pumpkins (basically started with 1-2 each to see if they would survive!). I only planted a month ago from nursery plants (I know, way too late, even for Canada!) but I can't belive how fast everything is growing. So far all I have harvested is leaf lettuce, and once I cut the first bunches for a salad I couldn't believe how fast it grew back. Yeah pruning! Anyway, I know other stuff will grow to be edible, other stuff won't, but I feel like I am part of some big cosmic plan that I ignored for 48 years and am now discovering. Store bought produce is still relatively cheap that I don't really think it will save me money to grow, but I go insane everytime I go into a local grocery store and find the only things that are available at the height of our local growing season. )are from the US (no insult intended!) and Mexico (i.e. strawberries, apples, tomatoes, broccoli to name just a few). Maybe if we amateur gardeners and local growers stop consuming non-local stuff they'll have to wise up! Anyhow, keep sending pics. You're an inspiration!