I am no stranger to gardening.  Mom had a garden, Grandparents, as well as Aunts & Uncles had gardens.  Previous homes in other states had vegetable gardens.  

2008 - With poor soil conditions and the desire to get something going right away, a raised bed was our first choice.  2 - 2"x4"x12' frame.  Laid newspaper on the grass for block then layered on a locally purchased compost mixed w/ native soil.  Purchased a few plants and stuck them in the bed.  Planted a dozen potato's directly in the native soil approx 20 feet East of this bed.

The Result:  Very little harvest.  Too much shade was the primary culprit.  We live on the West slope of the Blue Ridge.  The sun clears the horizon very late and when you live in the woods....  who would have thought...  So, I studied the sun and how it traveled the property.  I like the trees.  I chose to live in the woods, now how can I make this work with a garden.

2009 - With poor soil conditions and the desire...  you know where this is going.  Based upon my studying how the sun played on the property, I selected a new location for a raised bed.  Again, laid down newspaper and again used locally purchased compost mixed w/ native soil.  Purchased a few plants and stuck them in.  Mostly mints and other hardy plants.  Nothing big.

The Result:  Eureka, it worked.  There is a good amount of sun here.  Now we will invest in the back breaking work of cutting into the clay and amending the soil to create the garden we dream of.  We will continue to use these two raised beds - the first one for shade tolerant vegetables.  This one can continue to hold the mints and other herbs.  Besides, it is close to the kitchen door.

2009 - Late in the summer, sweetie rented a roto-tiller from the local rental place and went to work cutting it out.  Once he had the surface cut, tested the soil.  Zero nutrients are present.  Wow,  we started layering on material.  The same locally sourced compost used before, leaves and grass clippings, wood stove ash, basically built an oversize compost pile, to break down and amend the soil over winter.

You can see the shade encroaching on the new garden....  

Tested the soil and found...  some nutrients.  This is fenced to keep the dogs, cat, chickens, and larger locally grown deer out.  It is simply 6 T-posts driven into the ground and chicken wire hung on them .  The gate is in this front left corner, not really a gate, the wire is tied to both T-Posts and then I have a loop of wire holding more of the chicken fencing in this opening.  It works and didn't cost a .01

Did not do any plant starts.  Instead bought Cucumbers and Zuchini.  They are on the left encouraged up the fence.  Spring lettuce's were in the center and have already been harvested.  Summer & fall are on the right, should be mature in a few weeks.  
We are still learning what we can grow here and deciding what we want to grow.  We are searching out our fellow growers and asking questions.  Trying to find those "old" garden crops that the seeds can be saved from or may even over winter in this region.  

Red Clay is becoming black soil spring of 2011.

Sweetie and I decided years ago that we would only plant landscaping of edible plants.

We found this house on the Blue Ridge of WV, house w 1 acre of miserable, rocky, clay land, & we bought it.  Why?  Well, the initial criteria was that it had a garage.  ;)

The BONUS reason?  Most tree's on the property are edible / fruit bearing.  This area used to be an orchard and some of the old trees remain.  Persimmon, Black Walnut, Cherry - all are mature trees on the property. Also in this region is the Red Bud which the flowers are edible, and we have one or two of those. There are wild onions growing in the yard and wild wine berries (raspberries) growing in the underbrush.  What a great way to get a new start on our old plan!!  

So, outside of the garden beds we have also added:  grape vine, blueberries, blackberries, apple trees, rhubarb, sunchokes, oh my!  Roses, nasturtiums, purple cone flower, have all found homes in this yard. What's next? 

Pests took a toll this year.  However, there were success' also! We did get several zucchini and summer squash before the pests caused the plant to collapse. The celery successfully over-wintered into the spring.  The Kale was very bountiful until the cabbage worm found it.  The peppers have been great and are still producing.  The Melon has a few good sized fruit that will be ready to harvest very soon.

Stink bugs - they have damaged everything from swarming the entire tomato plant, to summer squash & cucumber's that looked fine and were brought into the house to only start rotting within a day or two. Even the first crop of apples, fresh picked at the Farmers Market??  Brought home a basket and a few were rotting within days from stink bug damage.