10 Steps to Gardening from Scratch « Straight from the Farm:
These 10 steps are best applied to a garden being created from scratch. However, a few of them are good to repeat with an established garden once in awhile.
It’s only fair to add a bit of a disclaimer here too: these steps are a tad idealistic and presume you all have plenty of time and resources on your hands. Reality may not allow you to take all of these steps. Don’t let that discourage you. These steps are just what I’d do if I were starting over from scratch. Use the ones that make sense for you and learn what you can from the others.