I guess I need to fully explain, since I get the feeling some people have different vision of what I'm building in their heads.. so here goes.. I have a sloped back yard.. so the one edge of the garden will be slightly above ground level.. like 6 inches.. then the rest will be more and more above ground. The back end will be totally above ground and have a drain tube that heads down the hill into the water tanks.. the whole garden will have a sloping pitch to the bottom of it and 6 inches of gravel and corrugated pipe leading to the drain. The grave and pipe will be covered with geotextile fabric so only water gets through it.. and there will be some corrugated pipes running vertically around the garden to help with drainage and filling.. So it will be rubber membrane, 6 gravel, fabric, 24" good soil. So my plan is normally when everything is fine with the weather to just have the drain open and water will just flow out.. so there is no chance of water logged soil.. then in hot summer when there is no rain.. fill and purge the garden when needed. It would just act as if we got a good rain. The whole system will be gravity drained and water will be pumped back in when needed.. I see your points as to some plants needed more water than most..A good point to consider.. but does this explanation give a better understanding of what I'm trying to do.. ? thanks for the remarks so far..

I love all the ideas. I also have lots of rocks. I retired 3 years ago and have done more this year than the other 3 summers combined. I guess it takes time to get acclimated to retirement. I spend so much time working on the structure of my backyard that I have little to show in my veggie garden. A couple of tomato plants, peppers, corn and a few peas. All started in mid June. As for my rocks I just keep moving the piles around as I don't have a real plan. Just go with what moves me at the time. I love the dry stream bed but don't know if I could build a little bridge. Also love the rose rock garden and the different rock stacking ideas. I also saw somewhere on the garden web a way to use up rocks by making a mowing strip using a dry mix way. I believe the gal's name was linea. She may have had a number after her name. Loved what she accomplished. It looked fabulous. Hope to see pictures of what you finally decide to do.

thank you all for the suggestions. i'm so exhausted from moving rocks and carrying bags of mulch, i didn't even have the energy to shop for plants! i especially like the idea of cacti. very thorny cacti, planted VERY close to the other plants. i'm sure that if the deer get too close, they won't come back...

Hello. You didn't say whether this is a new home for you. I spent the first year checking out the sunshine in our backyard. My backyard was a south facing yard. The back fence shaded the back yard almost 4 feet into the yard. Which meant I started my first cinder block line just over 4 feet away from the block fence. OR the winter garden would never get any sun. During the summer time, the block fence might radiate too much heat back off the fence. My cinder block garden was 3 cinder blocks tall. 24 inches interior width. I started with 1 brick high. I found the roots didn't have enough room. So I went up to 2 bricks. Again, not tall enough for tomato plants if you bury your seedlings deep like many recommend. So, I went up to 3 bricks high. Perfect for me. I agree with previous posters. If you make the garden too wide, you won't be able to reach all sides of the garden. Important when you are trying to find the peas within the vines, tomatoes under their leaves, or to pull radishes that are ready for your salad. I put the blocks right on the hard AZ soil. I then added mulch, mulch, soil, manure, mulch, manure.... It took almost 3 years to get the perfectly blended soil for all sorts of vege's. Shoveling, raking, and spreading more manure did the trick. I mulched all my kitchen scraps I could. That certainly helped with the health of the soil. Oh by the way, the soil won't bulge out or push the bricks away. At least in my case. Any extra water leaked between some of the cracks and down to the bottom of the bricks. Making sure you have enough water to absorb into the soil so your plants have a chance to drink before it runs out at the bottom. Good luck!!