The University of California has a Cooperative Extention Office and is the expert for growing in your area. For less than $50 you can pick up the mastergardener book which will help you grow many things. Of course cheap resources are available for teachers and educators and can downloaded usually for free.

I strongly suggest that you might consider hydophoics if you are in an arrid and dry area. The University of Peru has come up with very inexpensive way to do it and helps to reuse strofoam as the planting medium that goes inside the water mix. You simply take a whisk and lightly stir the water twice a day to keep the water solution at it's best. In fact the set-up is so inexpenive that it may be cheaper for you than setting up traditional beds. The results are estonishing.

try to Google " Old Farmers Almanac "