Starting a Vegetable Garden

Yesterday I spent the afternoon planting seeds in little pots...vegetable seeds that is. The toddler was my little helper. We decided to do the seeds in pots rather than directly in the soil to make it easier to identify the plant from weeds. I am not exactly born with green thumbs. Once the seedlings have sprouted we'll plant them in the soil. But it'll take a couple of weeks which is a good thing since I have to prepare the garden site. The soil at the site we usually use for garden space is depleted and contains too much sand. So, my project for the next few days is to rent a dumpster and then remove a foot of dirt from an area which is approximately 12 by 4 feet. Do the math, that's a lot of dirt to move. I will have my work out cut out for me.