Thanks for your continuing suggestions! A couple of weeks ago, my Tomato plants' leaves started to change their color and become a bit brownish. I was really worried that the mild hale we had one night (roughly a week after they were planted) might have caused blight. I took a couple of samples (one bad looking old leaf and another newly growing one) to a local farming store (OC Farm Supplies in Anaheim, CA). The guy there was so patient and cooperative, he told me that he can't see any kind of disease with it and felt I might be watering them too much. Relieved, I came home and cut down on my watering routine of every other day to twice a week. It's been a week since and my plants are looking good already. Additionally, I went to the beach early Sunday morning and collected a couple of buckets full of Kelp. I soaked them in a big 13 gallon bin by filling it with water for about 12 hours. I took the thick juicy water out and added one part of this juice to an equal part of water and gave them to all my plants. There was enough left for me to give to my trees as well. This juice is THICK. Afterwards, I took out small chunks of this Kelp and laid it around my plants and covered them up with aged horse manure compost (which could double up as mulch, too). I am planning to repeat this process once a month throughout the growing season. From what I read, this thing is full of nutrients, so I am hoping this will help my plants to have enough of N-P-K. I bought Dr.Earth's Tomato, Vegetable & Herb Fertilizer (5-7-3) but haven't fed them any of it yet. If I continue feeding them Kelp juice every other week, would that be enough or should I still be fertilizing more? I want to keep away from any store bought feed (like Dr.Earth's), if I can. Your expert advise will be grately apprecaited. Thanks, Telugu Raithu

Oh wow... thanks everyone for all the generous feedbacks and input. I think I came to the right place. I am taking this project slow and plan to spend this Spring gathering knowledge and info ... and you guys are helping a lot. I'll probably start "breaking ground" this summer and hopefully have my first bed built by fall... with my first grow season in Spring of 2016. If I'm lucky enough, plant some cooler season variety before the end of this year. I'm also hoping to grow some seedlings inside later this year in prep for Spring 2016. I want to start small, but I want a "big picture" already drawn out so I can expand in phases and hopefully - if I'm lucky - full realize the full plan. At some point, I want to draw it all out and have an overall plan for this "addition" to the yard... and have it in a way that maintains, or even enhance, aesthetics of the yard. So though I want to start small, I'm gathering as much as I can so I can plan for the rest of the garden. I'll start off in one area and build from there in subsequent years following the plan. Again - thank you for all the responses. Skybird... I get the point of making sure to get all the weeds out of the lawn (where I will place the beds). I'll have to google it a bit to see what's the best way to exterminate weeds, including their roots once I clear the area of grass. I've got an area in the backyard that I think is a good candidate to be carved out for the garden. I haven't measured, but I'm pretty sure it gets at least 6 hours of sun. Mix in some of the topsoil into the subsoil - dully noted! Thanks for that tip! Dan... turfgrass rhizomes. I assume you mean rhizomes shooting under my bed walls and surfacing inside my bed. The plan I have is to have the garden completely sectioned off from the rest of the yard - fence, paths, and all. At the turf edge, I'll like install edging to keep the lawn at bay. My initial recon has gotten me some good ideas on how to install plastic sheeting as to extend my growing season - using PVC pipes as my wall support and hoops placed into the pipes, etc etc. I definitely plan on having plans for that. Maxin... Yes... irrigation will be a big factor in the plans. Based on what I've read and watched, drip systems seems to the the ideal and overhead irrigation is discouraged. I definitely have some specific questions around this topic, but I think I'll save them for another thread. But at this point, I think much of my initial leg work will be setting up the new irrigation lines, but also re-routing/displacing the existing lawn sprinkler heads. Anyway... I'll post my initial plans/layout soon and have you guys critic it. Lastly, I wanted to share a video I found in youtube where I'm getting a bunch of my initial information. It seems to be a video made in the 80's by a gardening author/expert name Jeff Ball - seems to know what he's talking about. 53 minutes long - he take the beginner from start to finish: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO2CLU-O6mU

I just did a green manure over winter and then double dug the mass of Austrian peas and crownvetch deep into the bed this spring right before planting. They told me to wait 2 weeks but I didn't because I was already late. I figured it would be two weeks before any roots got down there.. GOD, everything is loving it. It could be all the rain too. I have never seen green beans so happy or cucumbers so quick out of the gate and fruiting so quickly too.. I will be doing green manure to half my garden next year. I missed having my winter garden last year. About the draining water. My raised beds are big enough and high enough so I plant in ditches around tomatoes and build hollows around my cages of beans. Everything gets a bit of a ditch in the summertime. When I water the ditches and walls direct the water to the roots. It does not spread out. I learned that from someone who gardens in New Mexico. I have been thinking of using some ollahs too as an experiment. There are ways to make them with clay pots and a plastic gallon jug with holes in the bottom variation.

I invite "Do It Yourself" tips for constructing flexible & modifyable wooden raised beds to be mounted on castor wheels for my rooftop terrace veggie garden. I shall appreciate the cooperation. Thanks. H S Parekh, India