Domestic-Genius: Spring Has Sprung!

Every year in the Spring gardeners all over the country begin their yearly ritual. From East to West, North to South they begin the arduous task of prepping their gardens for Spring planting. I too have now joined the club. This year I have made the possibly crazy decision to plant a garden. I've grown herbs before...I keep thinking to myself. Possibly at some point this winter I bumped my head on something, or maybe the awful food poisoning from last August left a residue that has moved its way to the decision-making part of my brain. Not sure which but I'm doing it! I've always wanted a veggie garden. So here we go.
In order to take this project all the way I have done some research. Yes, I am one of those people that researches the heck out of something in order to try to get it as right as possible. And now that I'm blogging I feel I should really try my best to succeed, especially if I'm giving advice to others. That's not to say that trial and error isn't good. With failure comes success.
My prepping has been pretty involved considering the back yard has been like a deserted island for so long. There is an avocado tree and a lemon tree that are holding on for dear life back there and weeds about three feet tall. Apparently someone thought that that plants could survive with the rain water we get!!! Mind you that we usually don't get much rainfall in our area. So I've been trying to help the two trees out and weeding, which took two weeks of watering alone to soften the soil enough to get the shovel in! So I decided to only weed where in need the room. I will do the rest later when I have more time.
The plan is to build some raised beds and add some amendments to the current soil and plant in the beds as to keep everything level and draining better. The beds will be 4' by 8'. I feel that 3-4 beds should be enough. I don't need a big crop nor do I have the room. I plan to plant about 4-6 plants of each vegetable in case one or two die off. I'm not planning on using seeds for everything (some things you have to like carrots ) since I tend to be somewhat impatient. I do plan on going organic though and will stay as true to that as possible.
So you all get to embark on this journey and let's hope for the best. I really hope everything stays alive or I will have proven that not only researching something doesn't mean you will have a green thumb, but that I might have seriously bumped my head at an earlier date and still have a concussion or permanent damage. I will be chronicling the whole process and keep everyone up to date periodically including pictures. Wish me luck everyone.