Gardening - the beginning

In the fall of 2006, we moved into our brand new home with a blank yard to landscape.  I knew I wanted to have a garden, but I didn't know where to start.  Our yard is divided by a retaining wall running lengthwise, so in my mind it made sense to use the top part for gardening. The first summer of gardening I planted my "crops" straight into the ground.  I covered them with weed tarp to try and eliminate some of the need to weed.  Plants grew ok on the slope, but the water didn't absorb properly, pouring right off the wall.  Obviously, I didn't learn my lesson, and did the exact same thing the next year! Here are some pictures of the 2007 garden.

Fast forward to 2009.  I put in some stonework to add a little character to the gardening space.  I built up the middle part of the garden with stone retention walls so that I would be gardening on flat ground.  I still used the weed protection, but covered it in bark to help retain moisture.  We also added a black fence along the wall to keep our dog out of the garden :).  She loved the garden, but we didn't like her paws in it!  These pictures are from April 2010 - no snow, but still winter here in Colorado!  I never remove the dead foliage until spring.  Hmmm.  Is that the right way to do it?

In 2011, I decided to switch over to square foot gardening.  My dad and I built (4) 3'x5' raised beds with dividers.  I used Mel's special soil formula of vermiculite, peat moss, and compost.  There wasn't a need to put down any weed tarp, because the soil was "new" and the lack of soil compacting makes it easy to remove weeds as they arrive.  Since that year, I have only used organic and natural products in the garden.  I never really did use a lot of fertilizers and such, but in the olden days I had been known to sprinkle a little Miracle-Gro to give them that extra zooompf.  I know now that is not necessary and is in fact detrimental to the health of the soil/fruit/vegetables.  I remember the garden looking beautiful that summer, but I can't find any pictures of it!  One of these days I will try and organize the zillions of photos on our computer!