Well you are doing the lasagna garden which is a good start. In addition there are types of plants that you can grow that dont grow very large. Lilliput zinnias, smaller sunflowers, root crops, Bush sugar baby watermelons, bush zuchinni are just to name a few. I noticed you said you dont want a big honking compost bin at the moment. Why not create a worm bin. Theyll stay quiet, take care of your veggie scraps and theyll multiply to be able to take on more garbage when you decide to expand. You being in san diego im sure there is someone who will have worms to give you. As for basic gardening and plant care info, just ask a specific answer and youll get tons of responses. Basic organic practices incompasses alot. Do you know what a leaf thief is? lol

The other thing you can do is utilise the public library system. If your local library doesn't have a book on hand, there is interlibrary loan - they can get it for you from wherever it is in stock - it might take a couple of weeks, but... If you really like a book, then you can buy it.

Another option might be asking around to see if there are any local organic gardeners/producers - try the local Farmers Market or health food store for names and contact info - and see if they would be willing to let you pick their brains for a listing of good books. If you offered to help out with any necessary chores - weeding, etc. - then you might get a good response. While some of their books might be oriented towards a larger scale than you want, the principles would be the same. IOf there is a local source for organic fertilisers then they would possibly be able to help, both with other organic gardeners and with a list of good books - just be careful they DO know something, and aren't just rying to sell the most-heavily-stocked-book!

That said you might try anything by Elliot Coleman - even though he is in Maine, the principles are the same. However, finding local sources, or at least southern sources, would make the extrapolations and adjustments a LOT easier.

Depending on where you got the book from, and if you beat it up while reading it, you might be able to return it. I have often returned books to Waldenbooks or B & N, simply saying that they weren't what I wanted. If you don't have the receipt, you'll probably get a store credit.

For general gardening information suited specfically to your locale, look for "The Sunset Western Garden Book". Developed by Sunset magazine, this is written specifically for west coast gardeners and includes a rather detailed breakdown of climate zones unique to this area and what and how to grow best in them. For general organic gardening information, I'm not sure you can beat the classic "Organic Gardening" by Rodale Press. In fact, Rodale has a variety of titles focusing on organic gardening.

You do have a tiny little plot. By 30 square feet do you mean like 3 x 10 feet?

Your best bet would be intensive gardening methods. Do a search on biointensive gardening methods. You would start with a rich organic bed. Your lasagna bed is a good start.

Instead of seeding directly in your garden, you would probably get more crops over the course of your growing season by setting out transplants. Your transplants can be growing in pots while your previous crop is maturing. Example: in very early spring, plant radishes, salad crops. Start seeds in flats for your warm weather crops, about 6 weeks before you intend to set out the plants. As your spring greens come out, set out your warm weather plants, and plant things like bush beans, bush squash.

You can have your parsley and basil and chives around the edges of your beds. As your beans come out, you can put in your fall crops. I usually get my fall garden started too late. You will need to start some things while it is still pretty hot, so they can mature during cool weather. I don't know about your zone, but peas are a good fall crop for me. Check maturity dates and plant accordingly. My fall spinach was started too late to harvest, but I covered it before the first really hard freeze and will uncover it in a few weeks, hoping to get a head start on spring.