Limas might need a soil temperature above 60 degrees. We usually plant them here after common beans. Check recommendations at Territorial Seed for daylength sensitivity in soybean varieties for edamame, recommended blackeyes or other cowpeas, ets. If you're interested in beans grown for their seeds instead of or in addition to pods, many common bean varieties are good candidates as well. You can also grow runner beans (bush or pole) in SLC. Be sure you cook the mature bean seeds before eating them (good advice for other beans, too). There are some new runner/common bean hybrids out now, too. They sound interesting. Haven't tries them. Here is a link that might be useful: Tenderstar runner/common pole bean

You do not need to bring in any soil, but you may need to btring in some organic matter. Since the soil is the single most important part of the garden to an organic gardener, so start there. Contact your local office of the Utah State Universtiy USDA Cooperative Extension Service about having a good, reliable soil test for base nutrient load and soil pH done and then dig in with these simple soil tests to see what you presently do have, 1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer you soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. Once you know what you do have then you can begin to make plans to amend that soil to make it into a soil that is good and healthy and will grow strong and healthy plants. Here is a link that might be useful: Utah State University CES

Yes you can plant a cottage type garden, you just have to adjust the types of plants you use. My front garden is a cottage garden with a somewhat tropical twist and I'm a couple counties south of Gainesville. My soil started out very sandy but I've been able to build it up by adding a lot of organic material. Daylilies, as long as you get the right varity, do very well, I have a lot of them. I haven't had any luck with hostas but maybe you'll be far enough north for them. Some of the plants I have in the front are various coreopsis, firespike, profussion zinnias, stokes aster, crinum (Queen Emma, Sangria, milk & wine, and Menehune), white butterfly ginger, liatrus, butterfly weed, asian rain bells, daylilies, blackberry lily, louisianna iris, various salvias, pink porterweed, coleus, african blue basil, justicia, rain lilies, amaryllis, lions tail, fennel, mexican tarragon, dianthus, black-eyed susan, tansy, asian hollyhocks, bamboo muhly grass, swamp hibiscus, ornamental bannana trees, and more. Here's a picture along the front sidewalk from last year. The ground cover on one side is sunshine mimosa and on the other is chenille plant. Hope this helps you! Kara

Hi CJ, I created a food garden in similar conditions two years ago with great results, and thought I'd share what I did... To begin I dug out the area (I chose a circle about 15 feet in diameter for the garden), and like you, I hit impossibly hard substrate less than a foot down. I mixed the loosened top layer of soil with a few bags of topsoil, manure, and some of the organic material under salvaged dead pinyon pines. I then fenced the area in, of course, mulched like crazy with straw, and hooked up some hose from my washing machine to give it graywater (not actually supposed to be used for vegetable gardening, but that's ridiculous unless you're washing soiled diapers). With that thick layer of straw, all the necessary moisture is retained between laundry loads (using appropriate biodegradable detergent only of course), and any plants that cannot grow up through the straw from seed are started indoors, hardened off, and transplanted into the garden. I would discourage raised beds anyway, as they don't benefit from the moisture-retentive and temperature-mediating properties of the ground. Also, rainwater cannot flow into a raised bed, only out of it. Sunken basins are much more appropriate for this climate (check out the book "Rainwater Harvesting for Drylands" by Brad Lancaster, which goes into detail about this, as well as has a chapter on ancient Native American gardening methods). So, my three tips for gardening here would be: 1. Keep it small, this allows much more control over every part of the process, increasing yields. 2. Mulch like crazy... Oh, did I mention I have never had to pull weeds from my garden? 3. Pay attention to the weather and animals to minimize plant losses. Good luck to you!