If you live in the desert - sunken bed or protected bed and waffle/dry gardening is the best choice. It traps what little water does come naturally and reduces the manual watering needed. It protects your plants from the dry, moisture sucking wind as well. Plus you can plant early and easily cover the seedlings with trash bags until the last frost.

I have also found that doing this in the desert, along with companion planting reduces the need for fertilizers, pesticides and other soil arguments. So raised bed may not work everywhere but companion planting will!!!

make raised bed gardens and then do lasagna gardening. I started gardening three years ago from seed and have been amazed at the success I have had. I use all kinds of recycled containers for my seeds - yogurt cups, tin cans, take out containers, milk cartons and jugs - after the seeds are the size of what I would buy at the garden center I plant them in my beds. Raised beds are the best thing in the world - I use landscape timbers and pieces of rebar instead of nails. I add cardboard and newspaper on the bottom (no tilling!) and then layer grass clippings, yard waste, veggie scraps, egg shells, coffee grounds - lots of good compost and then organic gardening soil I purchase and I have not lost one thing I planted! The next year the soil is even better! I plant marigolds all in between and around the beds and have no bugs!

I grow beans, squash, tomatoes, carrots, okra - anything you can think of I am growing! It is so rewarding to grow from seed and doing raised lasagna gardening is the only way I will ever go!

Brenda,
Sounds like you have poor soil. Don't waste your time trying to amend it if you only want a few plants. Get 4 pieces of 8 inch lumber from the garden center. Build a square box with the lumber using some exterior screws on top of the ground you have. Fill it with compost, topsoil, and/or compost/manure. Don't use only topsoil, add plenty of compost. Mulch leaves,grass clippings, and household veggie scraps are great nutrients. Add these as top dressing all year long as you have them available and mix them up well in the Fall. I promise your plants will grow just fine in this kind of raised bed and the soil will stay soft and not require tilling, just a little mixing up each year to loosen. Start small and good luck.

i tried planting some tomatoes andcucumberplants. i also planted 2or3 squash plants. all i got off of it was 2 tomatoes and 2 cucumbers. it was such a sad little garden. i told my mom i would just get it at the farmers market until i try to figure out what i did wrong.