Okay, I'm not as knowledgable as a lot of the people on this forum, but I'll give you some answers from my experience. As to substrate, people use both bark and aspen and are happy with them. I found I wasted too much bark in cleaning, and the snakes sometimes swallowed aspen that stuck to a wet fish, so I just use paper towels. The rest of your set-up sounds a lot like mine. Young garters can shed once a month or more, no problem there, although injuries to the skin like blister disease will cause the snake to shed frequently until healed. Shyness- yeah, most garters are. They don't have the muscle to hang onto you like a boa, they're mostly interested in wriggling away. Individuals vary, but I have one captive born, frequently handled snake that thrashes itself into a fit everytime I pick it up; and a wild-caught adult that will lay across my arm while I change the cage. Go figure. The 20 gallon is a good size, I use 10 gallons for snakes up to about two feet( a 10 gallon is 22" on the diagonal), and 20s for bigger ones. The max size depends on gender(females are bigger), species, and individual variation. I've heard of Floridas going over 4 feet, and I have an albino checkered that is 21" and hasn't grown noticably in a year. Life span also varies, 7 years is as good a guess as any. Well, that's what I have to offer, maybe someone else will correct me or fill in. Good luck.

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