Welcome to the group! Here's a few suggestions that may help keep the kitties out of your garden:

1 - mothballs are reported to deter cats, place them around the garden
2 - plant rue because the cats hate the smell (I've heard you can also rub it on furniture to keep them from scratching)
3 - spray a mixture of cayenne and water on your plants
4 - plant cat grass and cat nip in an area away from your garden
5 - put up chicken wire

The last two have worked best for me, and the others have had limited effectiveness with my own stubborn cats.

Thank you Melanie. Still navagating this site and with the holidays and work I got behind. Great suggestions. I greatly appreciate it.

In terms of vegetables pretty much everything grows down here, just in different seasons than your probably used too. In AZ we basically have the ability to grow food year round, since our winters are light (in most of AZ). I believe something insane like 80% of all leafy greens consumed in the US are grown in AZ during the winter.

In regards to the location of your garden I personally wouldn't place it in an area with a lot of shade. You definitely want to protect it from the Sun on the West side, but you want it to get plenty of Southern exposure. In the Spring/Summer grow season, vegetables need at least 7 hours of direct sunlight. In the winter we're looking at 5 hours. Peas my not flower with only 5 hours, but you can definitely grow leafy greens.

I'm also NOT a fan of using raised beds in the desert. In any other area of the country that would be the way to go. Not here. All the qualities that make a raised bed excellent everywhere else, is their major weakness in the desert. The 2 main ones being the fact that the soil in a raised bed is a lot warmer & it drains water very quickly. These means that you will use more water to produce your vegetables & that they won't be as happy because their roots are going to be very hot. It won't take much to have a crop failure.

I recommend doing a water harvesting basin for your vegetable garden. This would require you to dig at least 2 feet down (only dig out the planting bed & leave walkways intact), excavating all the soil & then amend it. You amend it by putting in 1/2 of the screened native soil & 1/2 quality compost. This works really well for me, much better than any of the raised beds I've built. I do this for a living & have direct experience with both methods. Digging in the ground is also much cheaper. The wood & soil needed for a raised bed can be very expensive. You can do a 100 sq ft garden for under $50 in the ground if you do the digging yourself. Not so with a raised bed. Your looking at at least $150 for the same square footage & you're be paying more for water too. For the same amount of money you can hire a master backhoe operator to dig out several garden beds in 2 hours.

With that said, digging 2 ft down may not be up you're alley. If you're going to build a raised bed anyway, do it the permaculture way. Build a wicking bed as they would say in Australia. In the US they usually call them Sub Irrigated Planters or Self Watering Containers. It's basically a low-tech hydro planter that utilizes capillary action to water your plants through their root systems. These systems can conserve 50%-80% of the water necessary to grow vegetables in arid drylands like our desert.

It's a permaculture thing that came out of Australia with their strict water laws. They can only hand water their gardens & only 2xper week max! Many places in Australia are arid drylands like our desert. I've posted 4 links which are my favorite right now

http://www.globalbuckets.org/p/olla-irrigation-clay-pot-system.html

http://www.globalbuckets.org/p/grow-bags.html

http://www.globalbuckets.org/1999/12/grow-bags-combined-with-aquavalve.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WLsz5XWSE8o

Here is an extensive research list I've compiled over the years on how to build these systems:

Self-Watering Containers

http://www.josho.com/gardening.htm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZUCxBHeq04

http://grow.lot-o-nothin.com/sites/default/files/swc-1-making-a-swc-final.pdf

http://grow.lot-o-nothin.com/sites/default/files/swc-2-dual-tub-swc.pdf

http://www.urbanorganicgardener.com/self-watering-containers/

http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-a-self-watering-container


Sub Irrigated Planters

http://www.insideurbangreen.org/sub-irrigated-grow-box/

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35818333/DIY-Two-Bucket-EarthBox-Sub-Irrigated-Planter

http://greenroofgrowers.blogspot.com/2008/07/how-make-two-bucket-sub-irrigated.html

http://encyclopediahydroponica.wordpress.com/2008/05/17/diy-earth-box/

http://www.siph2o.net/index.html

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Sub-Irrigated-Planter-Gardening/157324474308592

http://lunchatsixpoint.com/2011/06/27/the-sub-irrigated-planter-project/

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xjcetq_ollas-and-sub-irrigated-planters-in-balcony-garden_school

http://www.slipperyslopefarm.us/liberty-sunset-garden-center-sub-irrigated-planter-systems.html

http://bushwickgreenteam.blogspot.com/2010/06/raised-bed-sub-irrigated-planters.html

http://www.greenculturesg.com/articles/may06/may06_self_watering_pot.htm


Wicking Boxes

http://scarecrowsgarden.blogspot.com/2008/02/wicking-box-gardens.html

http://milkwood.net/2011/05/09/how-to-make-a-wicking-box-mini-wicking-bed/

http://squarefoot.creatingforum.com/t3068-sfg-wicking-boxes


Wicking Beds

http://www.instructables.com/id/Wicking-Beds/

http://waterright.com.au/wicking_bed_technology.pdf

http://waterright.com.au/adoption.html

http://waterright.com.au/wicking beds.html

http://www.microponics.net.au/?p=352

http://scarecrowsgarden.blogspot.com/p/wicking-worm-beds.html

Bo this is a great idea. Thanks

Also watch the "Free" category on craigslist.com there were a couple of places in Mesa offering free pavers this weekend, but alas I live too far away and no truck...but its always been a good source for materials for me.

I just read about VermiSoks and am excited about learning more and applying the knowledge.

Tracy, Do you know if your railroad ties were treated with creosote? Are you planning on a liner if they are? I love the look of railroad ties but I am always afraid of the whole creosote thing.

I personally wouldn't use railroad ties since their made from treated lumber & can leach toxins into your soil. I'm not a fan of raised beds either since they heat up more & lose water rapidly. You waste a lot of water when growing food in raised beds.

I would just dig out a keyhole garden 2 feet down & amend it with half compost & half native soil.

You always have to be careful of treated wood. Including railroad ties and bug treated wood. Those chemicals that they are treated with will end up in our foods.

I like the idea of mixing native soil with compost, but there is no way I can dig 2 feet down. Soil is too full of rocks; broke three trenchers putting in the landscaping irrigation lines. Hence the raised bed idea. Current plan is to do a variation on the square foot garden, making the beds 4x8 instead of 4x4. Will probably use redwood or untreated lumber at this point, and shoot for a September install.
Has anyone tried using the soil mix in Mel Bartholomew's All New Sqare Foot Gardening book here in the desert?

I will upload pictures one day of the garden install digs at my urban farm. We have bedrock pretty much a couple inches into the soil. I usually dig 4 feet down, using a caliche bar, pick axe, hand pick, and pointed digging shovels. The soil gets screened as it is excavated & 1/2 of it is used for water harvesting contour berms the same day its dug out. We only dig our planting beds & leave walkways intact. We get monster vegetables using this technique.

With that said I also practice container gardening using the Australian wicking box/bed systems that are known as self-watering containers here in the U.S.

Here is a link for DIY wicking beds (superior raised bed):

http://waterright.com.au/wicking-bed-history.html

Hi Cathie, I see something similar on my raised bed cherry tomatoes. I asked some one at Harper's today, and she said that they've been hearing this a lot this season, and Mr Harper said it had something to do with how cold it got at night after our recent rain, and that it is harmless, not a fungus, and to leave it be.

I hope your tomatoes are in the same shape as mine and we are ok! I'm seeing little green tomatoes now!! :)

John, Unfortunately the only solution I have found that works is to dig it out. If it is everywhere - put down a weed wall then dig out the Bermuda. You have to be persistent and every time the grass shows up dig it out. I am going to go write a blog post right now about weed walls.

I agree with Greg, you have to dig it out & screen it.

I have also had success with rotating a chicken tractor on areas run over by bermuda for at least 3 months. They completely eradicated it. They love to eat it & dig it out for me. Their manure is so hot that it can re-seed or come back after 3 months. I did this as an experiment but now its my preferred method for getting rid of it.

In areas where I can't put a chicken tractor I burn it with a blow torch. It totally comes back, but I don't like using sprays even if their OMRI listed. I have one area where I can't do this because their are some Acacia's, so I just hand pull it before it seeds & feed it to the chickens.