Garden

[Rowana]

Hi all -- I've had to live in apartments all my adult life until now, when I have finally moved into a beautiful rental house. The landlord says it's fine if I want to put a garden in the large back yard. The landlord handles all the gardening/maintenance of the outside, generally -- his guys come once a week to mow the lawn, trim bushes, rake leaves, etc. -- but the garden would be up to me. Now, growing up we always had a large garden and some of my fondest memories are of helping with the planting, weeding, watering, tomato-worm wacking and harvesting. So I have SOME background, from way back in childhood! But actually building a new garden from scratch -- now I need some help and advice! Any good books anyone could recommend on starting a backyard garden? Websites? I don't even know how to go about marking off the section of lawn I want to make into a garden, and digging up the sod and dirt, let alone amending the soil (if it needs it - which it probably does) and etc. Growing up, my dad had a rototiller, which made short work of the "plowing" - but I don't have one of those! Also, I now live in S. California, which is a very different climate from where I grew up in the Midwest. Although we have "seasons" here, they are subtle. Do I still plant most things in the spring, or is there anything I could put in now? Eager to get started, but want this to be a success!