You can make a huge compost pile on the side that is leaning, or where you can rake it to level the ground. If you want it filled fast, buy top soil. Compost will take a while, so you may want to fix it during the end of the growing season of this year through out your winter season. The pile has to be big, or it will work slowly in winter or just freeze until a thaw, maybe about 5x5x5. Pole holes through the top and through the sides to aerate, work pile every 3 or 4 weeks, watering it like a houseplant, just until moist. Put 3 inches of rough compost material (twigs, sticks, corn stalks, etc.,)at the very bottom before you start your pile and cover with a tarp.

Good luck. I love hearing about plots because they are interesting being you will be amongst other gardeners, not just in your own backyard. You can learn a lot and the view of one must be beautiful.

You can use grass clippings from mowing as a mulch, straw from a straw bale you can buy at your local farmers supply shop, or the black paper you buy in a roll. All will work.

Fencing is the fun part because if there are rabbits and deer, you won't have a garden at all. I just bought some seed for milk thistle, in medieval days they used thistle, milk thistle is just a type of thistle, as a growing fence. The burrs on the plant will stick into the animals and to their coats as well discouraging them from eating the vegetables. It worked for them, but thistle can be an intrusive weed. They used brier and thistle fences and the briars might even be rose bushes, anything with pickers is going to work. There are lots of picker briers plants.

Pick up the largest stones and debris by hand. Level the area with a garden rake, the kind with sturdy prongs (?tines?) about 4 inches long. Turning the rake upside down and using the flat side sometimes works even better for leveling very uneven soil. The prongs will collect alot of the stones and plastic bits and you can pick them up then. Small amounts left in the soil should not be a problem.

Leaves, grass clippings, and straw would all work for mulch and would help keep weeds down and keep moisture levels even. Perforated plastic and fabric can be used without drip irrigation and is also a possibility.

See what others use for fencing and ask what has worked best for them. Sounds like you have alot of critters. Many kinds of fencing, both plastic and metal, of varying height and opening size are sold in 50 foot lengths. You could fence a 10x15 foot area with a 50 foot length and leave a 5x10 foot strip unfenced if you didn't want to buy a second roll. Plant things that don't appeal to the critter in the unfenced area. I can plant tomatoes, peppers, onions, and marigolds outside fencing and get by without animal damage. In some places this does not work. Again, others gardening in the plots in earlier years may be able to give advice specific to your area. Hope your veggies do great!

scarletdaisies - That's interesting about how they used to use briars for fencing. I was wondering what people used to use, before chicken wire was invented. I'm trying to do as many low tech things as possible. So I might try that sometime.

naturegirl - I wish I had your deer:) Mine like tomatoes.

a... - I use a chicken wire fence. From what I've read, a 4 foot fence works pretty well, if it has a floppy top and about a 2 foot apron at the bottom. It should keep out most small animals that will either jump, climb, hop or dig. A loose fence, with a floppy top is supposed to be good, because some animals supposedly won't climb something that doesn't feel secure. It won't help with tunnelers though, unless you bury it some. Deer can easily jump a 4 foot fence. So you need something extra for deer. Deer can either jump high or far. But not high AND far. And they probably won't jump something if they can't clearly see what it is they're jumping. And a good, solid landing spot. So one option is to extend the height of your fence by adding poles at the corners, and stringing things around it. I just use my trellising system that's inside the fence. It goes all the way around with lines everywhere. And it makes it pretty hard for deer to find a safe way over. They have limited depth perception, because their eyes are on the sides of their head for better periperal vision. So lines all over the place can confuse them. Try covering one eye, and that's probably how a deer sees. I haven't had a lot of experience with this fence. But I have a lot of small deer. And so far, no hoof prints in my garden.

a... - A couple more things... I don't think there's a cheap way to fence out squirrels. I just hope they prefer nuts, instead of my vegetables. And I usually plant a couple tomatoes outside the fence, hoping those will get eaten first. And the rest will get left alone. I also don't try to fence out birds. Netting might work, but I heard they can get tangled in netting. And I'd rather lose a few vegetables. But you could try putting up a wren house. I read that wrens don't eat vegetables, and they'll chase away other birds, because they're very territorial.

Handpicking and raking is the only way to get rid of the trash.

Leveling the soil will really help to conserve water, as it will prevent it from running downhill. Invest in a $6 "line level" that you will attach to a nylon string. Rake or move all the rocks to the low end of the plot. Use your line level (on a stretched out string) to find out how much you will have to build up the low end of your plot. Anchor one end of the string/level with a large rock on the high end of the plot, and stretch it across the plot, raising the string on the low end of the plot and see how much higher the low end needs to be to make the bubble in the level centered, and pile your row of rocks that high. Then either move some soil from the high end to the low end to make it level, or bring in additional topsoil/compost to bring the low end up to the same height as the top of the rocks. If you're bringing in compost, it would be best if you leveled the soil, then added the compost in an even layer.

Plastic mulch isn't going to do anything to improve the soil, so I would advise plant mulch, as it will help keep moisture in the soil as well as keeping the weeds down and the soil cooler.

A compost pile in one corner would be a helpful thing to have, whatever size it turns out to be. The smaller the debris is that is added, the faster it will break down. I know many people advocate putting sticks on the bottom, but I don't think it does much good, but it sure drives you crazy when you try to turn the compost and keep hitting that junk with your fork. BTW, invest in a spading fork, you'll never regret it, good for digging and for turning compost.

Fencing: The plastic stuff is pretty fragile, as I have discovered -- raccoons climbing it will tear it down. The cheapest, most useful fencing would be 100 feet of 36" tall welded wire fencing (2x4" holes) and 7 heavy-duty pound-in metal posts (try to borrow a fencepost-pounder, a metal tube with handles). Put a post in each corner, and one in the middle of each long side. Put the last post 3 or 4 feet from a corner, where your 'gate' will be. Be sure to make the gate wide enough for the widest thing you will be bringing in there (like a wheelbarrow or rototiller). Start wrapping the fencing around the plot, starting at one of your gate posts (this is easier with at least two people) and come around back to the other gatepost -- don't cover the gate opening! Fasten the fencing to the second gatepost and cut the wire with wirecutters. (Clips should come with the fenceposts-- ASK!)

Now cut a piece for the gate, as wide as the opening plus one more row of holes, so it's just a little wider than the opening. Use 3 or 4 black cable ties (also called 'zip ties' -- black is more resistant to sunlight) as hinges to fasten the gate to one of the posts, but not too tight, as they have to move a bit. The best thing for the fastener is a metal rod about 3/8" diameter and about 4 feet long. A hardware store or metal fabrication shop should have something that doesn't cost much -- have them make a right-angle bend in it about 41" from one end (if they can't/won't, find someone with a chainlink fence, remove one of the caps from the support pipes, stick the end of the rod in to where you marked the bend, and bend it). And you'll need one regular red brick. Weave the long end of the metal rod down through the gate holes so it's close to the post (if you need to keep it in place, use a few more of those black cable ties). It should stick out at the bottom about 4" or so and stick into the ground to keep the gate closed. Dig a hole for the brick so it's on the gate-side of the rod (to hold it in place), and so the top of the brick is level with the ground. Cut a piece of any kind of rope for the gate fastener about a foot long. Make a loop that just fits over the rod (between the bend and the top of the gate mesh wire, and reaches easily over to the fence post.

To close the gate, jam the bottom of the rod into the ground by the gatepost and on the far side of the brick, loop the rope over the top of the fencepost and swing the L toward the hinge side so an animal can't push in. To open the gate, swing the bent rod toward the fence and lift the rope off the fencepost, and lift the rod out of the ground.

With the leftover fencing, you'll make a barrier to keep rabbits and groundhogs from digging under your fence. Use your wirecutters to split it right down the middle lengthwise (right in the middle of the mesh squares so you have prongs sticking out on each edge) so you have two long pieces. Lay each length on the ground just outside your finished fence (long sides first) with the freshly-cut prongs pointing at the fence. Make sure the long lengths of cut mesh extend past the standing fence corners by at least 18" on all four ends for overlap, then cut off the excess. Use the excess to do the same on the shorter ends of your fence, again with the prongs facing toward the plot, again with an extra 18" sticking off the ends. All the corners should be overlapping. It would be best to lay them down so the curve of the mesh is downward, or the ends may stick up and trip people.

Now push the flat pieces right up against your standing fence, sliding the prongs under the fence, and bend the prongs up and around the bottom wire of the standing fence. You can do all of them if you want, or just every 6" or so, and cut off the extra prongs. Do this all the way around, including the section right in front of the gate.

Fix the soil before you install the fence, it will be easier. Your fence can also be a trellis.

Maybe get a 10x20 instant garage frame? Use it for fence support and trellis. They're sometimes available used.

Also think about individual bed covers, like cold frames with wire panel tops.

Mulch with plant material. Old tree leaves will have less weed seed load. Straw is nice if you can get it easily. I use rotted hay.

As others have said, level it all first. And if you don't like the plastic shreds, don't ad more plastic, because that's exactly what it's going to end up looking like.

Dan