mike williams

I've been doing a version of this for awhile.
I had a small garden within a small town way up north. Not an ideal situation, lots of shade and it was sloped, the ground filled with basement spoil. Yet I grew a lot of things. A decent percentage of what my family needed.
Now I have almost a full city lot, in a much larger town in a much milder climate. I grow, can grow, lots of things. However, the level of parasitic pests has increased as well. Lots of 'em. My morning and afternoon rituals involve beetle patrols and cat scanning. (Yes, kitty kats, who eat the birds and love a nice prepared bed, or young seedling row to scratch and poop in, sigh.) Spring and fall bring rats. Deer, and raccoons all through the temperate months. All the wilts and blights as well.
Yet I grow a ton, literally and figuratively, of food. Love it.

I grow lots of flowers in with my vegetables, I use lots of containers, floating row covers and have won a kind of peace with the kitties. My morning and afternoon rituals of debugging gives me a kinship with the micro environment, the birds know me and flutter about with no worries around me. I am after all, the cat chaser.

My advice is to start small, and grow into what you feel you can do. Use the environment for what it is. If shady, shade grown cucumbers are nice, and when overripe, almost like melons, sweet. If sunny, giant sweet onions, and huge brandywines will abound.
Leaves are free, compost is free, building soil is the most valuable of hobbies.

Yeah, fraction conversion to decimal works fine. 1/2 = .5  1/4 =.25 1/8 =.125.
Remembering most building is based on factors of two. To minimize wasting material stick to the notion that walls stretched out in a linear fashion should add up to a round number divisible by two, on the outside measured walls. 12 by 16...24 by 32 sort of thing, in feet.

It’s great to pencil things out on a sheet or two of graph paper. Draw it out, remember paper is cheaper than lumber. I spent hours doing this with an architect ruler when I couldn’t do anything else. Referencing how to books from a bygone era when people  did build their own houses. I’m pretty sure that stuff can be found on line....

John has the right idea. Toads are our friends. You need not be too close to water either. I fostered toad cultures simply by provideing toad habitat. Toads like to moderate their body temps. Hide in the shade during the day and hunt slugs at night. Leave a bowl of water out for them, put an old board that they can hide under and they'll move in if any are around. My little girls used to bring home toads to let go in the garden. They became permanent residents.