Mulching saves SO much weed-pulling labour, and helps prevent the plants from drying out, so you don’t have to water so often. There’s a biodegradable black plastic (made primarily from cornstarch, I think) that you put down in the spring, and by fall, when your garden is winding down, it’s broken down and dissolved into the soil. But what I do for mulch is rake up all the dry leaves I can get my hands on (I even offer to rake up and remove my neighours’ leaves, and they never object!), shred them with one of those electric combination leafblower/mulcher things, put them in paper yardwaste bags and store them over the winter in our shed. Then in the spring and summer I used them to mulch in the vegetable garden. They’re especially usefully for growing potatoes, as you have to cover the plants to keep the forming potatoes from poking out of the soil and turning green. It makes a beautiful mulch, and in the fall I just rototill it all under, to keep improving the soil. The book you describe sounds very practical and good; I never did the raised beds, but managed to figure out on my own a lot of the rest. Especially not being too ambitious when starting out. We started with a small strip in the back yard, pretty much for tomatoes and zucchini, and have now expanded to about 1200 sq.ft. Being able to access it from all sides makes it much easier to work.