Hi Catherine! Welcome to the Permaculture forum. You will find many useful applications of permaculture looking through this forum. Hugelkultur beds are a great place to start -- to get some healthy vegetables growing. A close second would be Dave's herb spirals. Dave's swales have involved the use of heavy equipment, but you can divert water with a simple trench. Capturing run-off water is a good idea, as well as using rain barrels.
Right now I am working on a method to stop my gravel driveway from eroding out into the street.
