Have you looked around at photos or actual gardens of thin beds to see what you like. I would keep the plants low near the ends and in front of the windows. One can put in a lattice for vines to climb on where the wall is. I was always one of those who just plunk them in and redo as I go. Maybe leave some as a annual areas, and for bulbs that you replace every year. Go to nurseries and see what you like. Take a walk in a botanical park and hang in the shade areas and take notes. I don't like talking design because , it is a vague area and I don't know your likes and dislikes. Magazines are a good source and there are some books on garden design in the library. Ask yourself, do you want it to be low , seen as a single mass, or do you want it to be devided up into spaces with different levels and textures. Then ask if you want the same, are you looking for interesting foliage that will be of interest all year long. One can leave small spaces to put in annual color . If you go to the different mass look . Look at your wall and start dividing, and then sit down and think of different times of the year and different bloom time and such. Gardening is very much about the passage of time. It is all about finding out what YOU want from it. Don't worry, there are infinite number of do overs. It is a learning process. One can look for something simple like ajuga repens and columbine (bloom together in spring blue and yellow), or cast iron plant and then start putting things in as you discover them. Some people say do a low plant for most of it and then some tall thin plants to break the horizontality. The low plant you need to be aware of them getting into the walk way. some people are more OCD about this than me. Wet plants after a rain will bend over. I don't care but my realtor that sold my house had me rip out a whole bunch of plants. PISSED me off royally.

Gardening has two branches, the fruiting and the decorative, so I don't know which you are aiming for. Assuming the fruity type, one thing that's coming is the super-hot weather and with that a general (but not total or inescapable) pollen death, and so keep in mind that there are varieties of plants that fruit without pollination. Also a smaller plot like a 4 X 4 won't self-shade well, so you might need to add some somehow if you have plants that can't take the direct sun.. One quirk about Az: there are many best guesses about last frost date, and NOAA's is the beginning of April! Tucson got NO frost after the beginning of January, so if you follow the common wisdom you'd be running as much as three months late. It often pays to not listen to too much advice about timing. Of course that could also come right back at you and bite bad. When it works, you get to do this in April...

Renee- I don't do many vegetables in containers, but what you describe with your beets sounds like damping off- ?fungal thing that can happen when conditions are a little moist. If you look it up and that sounds like what happened, I think they recommend having a fan to keep the air moving around your seedlings can help prevent it. Here is a link to some recommended fall growing dates for Texas. Your local extension office might be able to give information more tailored to your specific area re: growing dates and the best way to amend your soil. You're right though- the time and effort you put into amending your future vegetable beds now will pay off a lot down the road. Texas fall vegetable growing dates Sorry I can't be more help- your area is really different than mine and don't want to lead you down the wrong path. Lisa PS I can't tell from your original post if you direct seeded your beets or if you were planning on transplanting, but as a general rule root crops need to be directed seeded. They don't tolerate being moved. I pretty much direct seed all my fall vegetables. Some spring things I transplant if I want to get a jump on getting them going in before it heats up too much. I would assume it would be similar in your area, but that's an assumption on my part. Lisa

It looks like everything isn't getting enough water. The amount of water a plant needs is highly dependent on the soil that it's in, and how much heat/sunlight it gets. That soil looks like it's very fast draining so you may have to water more than 1 time a day, and for longer periods of time (try to keep the flow low). The perlite mixed into the soil makes it drain really fast and the roots dry out shortly after the soil does. I have a lot of plants in containers and I use an automatic watering system for them. They get 10 minutes of water every morning from 1/2 gph emitters for 1 gal containers, and 1 gallon emitters for the 2-3 gallon containers. Anything larger than that and I use variable emitters. In summer, I change it to 8 mins, 2 times a day. You can get one of those timers for your hose and just leave it on real low for a few mins each day for these. As far as if everything is savable, everything except maybe the first picture has a really good chance of being saved, and that first plant might be savable but I'd give it a lot of shade for a few days and definitely give it regular and long watering.