Making my Bed

Picking the spot: sunny and well drained, at least 6 hours of direct sunlight, 7-8 hours preferred.
This was tough for me since most of our yard is shaded, but I set up a little chart marking zones in the back yard, and on the other side wrote the hours of the day when sun hit the back yard. I added up the hours of direct sun for each zone and the one with the most was the winner.
http://www.vegetablegardener.com/item/8287/find-the-sunniest-spot-for-your-plot

Things that are good to remember during this step are to consider what the sunlight will be like when the surrounding trees are filled with leaves.

We had to transplant a few perennials (hopefully they'll survive) and we built a raised garden bed in our best sunny spot and filled it with half top soil, half compost mixed together.

After all this, I was anxious to plant, but waited for the rain to moisten the soil, and planned out my garden!


http://www.thegardenhelper.com/vegetables.html