I guess the beginning is a good place to start

I was born on a dark stormy night...OK, that's the wrong beginning. Let's try again.
My gardening journey started in March 2009. I had an apartment, a baby son and a fair amount of free time while my husband was at work. We decided that it would be fun to have a garden. I'm not sure where the idea came from. Maybe from the sleep-deprived hallucinations of a new mom who's sleeping in 3-hour chunks. But more likely it was the fact that growing up, my family had a garden and I have good memories of that. Anyway, we rented a spot in the Magnolia Community Garden for $50 a year, water included. (Thinking about my current water bill, it kind of makes me want to rent that spot again and go live there. Water around here is expensive!) A previous gardener had already put in lovely garden beds and a fence, so all we had to provide was seeds, sweat, and a lot of naive enthusiasm!
Our first lesson in gardening: weeds grow really well in March. We neglected our plot for a couple weeks and came back ready to plant to find this lovely jungle.

 Yup, we're expert weed farmers alright. I spent quite a few hours clearing everything out. My son amused himself by playing with a measuring cup in a laundry basket. (Toys are so overrated.)

Cute little tyke isn't he? Takes after me.
After a few months of loving care, our garden looked like this:

I don't remember how well that first year of gardening went, but it must have been fun because we stuck with it for the next 5 years, until we bought a home in 2014. At last, we had our own backyard! Only problem: it looked like this: 

We had one tree, a termite-ridden old bird aviary, and a lot of mostly broken sprinkler heads scattered around the yard. But glorious day, look at all the potential! We could hardly wait to get started landscaping, and a garden was definitely going to be part of it. 

Well, I could chronicle the entire landscaping experience...but then the blog would have to be called "San Diego backyard remodeller girl" instead. Doesn't have the same ring to it. So let's fast forward past that thrilling story and get back to the garden. Here's our yard today:

We haven't figured out how to keep our grass alive yet (it could relate to my prior comment about the price of water) but my boys' pool noodle light saber makes a lovely lawn ornament, doesn't it? Our garden is definitely a work in progress - like all good things in life are - and I decided it would be fun to chronicle our experience here. The blog is meant to remind me of lessons we've learned and maybe help other SoCal gardeners who are trying to figure out how to deal with our ridiculously long growing season and challengingly bad soil. Hope you enjoy my ramblings!