Stupid questions from first time gardener

I was unsure but now I know that I will be staying in this home. So, I wanna grow some food.

I have this hill behind the house that gets full sun. It faces south-east. Once I clear out the ivy vines I will turn the soil and amend it with compost I created during the last summer and fall. I'll do that thing where I dig a 1 foot wide row to 1 foot deep, then break up the soil below that, then mix soil from the next row with compost and put that in the first trench etc. I think I can get three rows flat then I will have one row raised above that for a simple terrace thing. It's really the best spot in the yard. See pix below and tell me if I am crazy or not.

Is it too late to plant seeds in SoCal or should just pick up some plants?

We want the usual stuff, beefsteak tomatoes, some sort of carrot, some kind of potato, some lettuce & spinach, bell peppers, maybe green beans, maybe corn. What grows well with what?

Hate that stuff.

I'm in northern CA, and I'm currently starting my tomatoes and peppers indoors for transplanting in May. I don't think you'll have problems.

I can't recommend Sunset's books (and the magazine) too highly. Gardening in the West is very different than gardening anywhere else in the country, and following instructions written for the midWest just doesn't work. Find a good local nursery and ask them for advice: they can give you information specifically for your area.

I don't know about carrots: they need to be kept damp to sprout, and your slope may be a problem here. They also like really deep loose soil.

I'll let that pass. No need to get too ambitious the first time, right?

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/Feature/backyard/terrac.html
You could use the same stone as you have for continuity, or use treated wood.
Since your going through all the trouble to double dig it really isn't that much more work and will end up giving you a much better garden space. My best price for your type of stone is about 80 cents each, so it ain't cheap but think of it as an investment. The more you work and water that "hill" the more it will run off into the grass. The Ivy is whats keeping it where it is now and no amount of vegies will hold that soil in place like the Ivy does.
3' terraces let you reach your plants from both sides {the stones are your path} and keep you from walking IN your beds when planting and cultivating.
I would start from the top down and add at least one row of stone at the bottom. Use weed barrier behind the stone to keep soil in and weeds out. Your DYI center or stone supplier can help a lot and give you step by step instructions.
http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/FEATURE/backyard/pdf/terrace.pdf

As far as seeding directly into the ground it all depends on the plant variety. With the amount of work you've got, go with seedlings this year. You've got to get some satisfaction from your work this year or you could get discouraged.

ps. Understand that the more you dig around the more weed seeds you stir up. If it were me, I'd fry that Ivy with Round Up and be done with it. I know some poo poo "poison" but a hard 1x hit of chems will save you DAYS of work this year and more time later. Ivy it hard to eradicate and it can take all the fun out of gardening to fight a plant that just keeps coming back.

I ended up with two rows, 16 feet long, double dug and amended with my compost.

We ran into a lot of roots from the pine trees that used to be on this hill, so along with digging up the ivy roots it was a real pain. Since the leftmost pine died of bark beetles the ivy has baked in the sun and died back a lot. The soil was still moist from the recent rains and there were earthworms. The compost, just sitting since the fall, had a lot of earthworms. Good, black compost. First time for me, but it worked great.



We'll get some plants this coming weekend as you suggested.