I'm a bit confused, too - is the concrete stoop attached to an outbuilding, garage, shed, the back door of a neighbor's house? The concrete block looks like it might be someone else's garage. User name suggests some real closeness here but not so unusual in older urban neighborhoods. Is that all your property seen in the photos; the different fencing and wall treatments, plus the sidewalk to nowhere is all a bit hard to put together. You might get the most enjoyment and bang for your buck out of making a potager garden. From Wikipedia: "A potager garden is a French method of creating ornamental vegetable or kitchen gardens. Often flowers (edible and non-edible) and herbs are planted with the vegetables to enhance the beauty. The goal is to make the function of providing food aesthetically pleasing. Plants are chosen as much for their functionality as for their color and form. Many are trained to grow upward. A well-designed potager can provide food, cut flowers and herbs for the home with a modest amount of maintenance." Starting in on a potager would give you the best chance of making good use of the space for a modest monetary investment and would also afford you a spot somewhere in the background to start a compost pile - which is always good for organic gardening. There's a Potager Garden Forum here, people post pictures of their creative use of space. All in all, I think that might be a satisfactory solution for your yard - as you got into it, it could be as formal or casual as you want. Vines, creepers, clematis (even annual morning glories, sweet peas or the edible climbing nasturtiums) on the chain link will give you a backdrop.

I like diane 9's idea of a trellis with a vine...Clematis armandii is evergreen, grows quickly, and will flower with less-than-full sun. AND it smells good. Logan's may have one. Or MAYBE a Trachelospermum jasminoides (confederate jasmine)...but I'm not certain about the sun exposure/wind exposure in your spot. If you really wanted a tree...a Japanese maple would be nice...Bloodgood or Emperor I should fit the bill... Here is a link that might be useful: NC State Fact sheet on Clematis armandii

Do you have a lot of bunnies and deer in your area? You may not see any in your own yard because of the lack of foliage, but if you've got a deer population, you're going to have some trouble. We've got TONS of deer where I am, and they will eat anything we put in the front yard (they can't get into the backyard!) But, if deer are not a problem, I suggest Hostas. These are perennials, they're pretty hardy and roughly maintenance-free. We've got a bunch around the yard and we planted them there at least 10 years ago, and probably have not done much since planting them other than feeding once in a while. The rain provides enough water. However, when we tried putting them in the front yard, the deer munched happily on them. Same with the lilies, even though I was pretty sure deer did not like lilies (or maybe the bunnies ate the lilies?). Black eyed susans are self-seeding, and quite strong too. If you want a few smaller flowers for cutting, snapdragons are very attractive and provide a nice burst of color, and depending on your zone, since they are self seeding, they may come back in higher numbers the next year, and so on. Iris is a very nice choice too, as it is a fairly sturdy plant and does not require too much maintenance. I suggest finding some bearded iris rhizomes online right around now, because they are late summer/fall planted. There are a number of very attractive "rebloomers" that will bloom in the spring and again in the summer, which is always nice. Deer won't eat them, and they're nice. However i'm not 100% positive 6hrs is enough sunlight for an iris, but it might be. (iris experts, chime in!) You might want to consider some kind of wild flower seed. check online (i always buy my seeds and bulbs from americanmeadows.com and they do have a section, IIRC, for what seed mixtures are best for each area of the US) as these can provide a colorful splash to your garden bed. If you're looking for spring time color, invest in some daffodils. These are totally maintenance free, other than planting the bulbs. They take care of themselves, you don't have to dig up the bulbs, and they will multiply over the years. Any spot is okay for them, though they do prefer a little bit of shade, and so your 6 hrs of light is perfect for them. If you're looking for some border annuals, petunias are a nice choice, as are portulaca. Portulaca is much easier to take care of though--you really don't have to do anything other than plant them. With petunias you have to make sure they don't get too much water--and if you get a lot of rain, they're going to rot and get moldy. (though this is the same with most plants, i suppose)

That picture brings me a sense of instant happiness, haha! Thank you for taking the time to throw that together! What types of plants are those? And is the pic at least relatively to scale...as in I could fit those in that area? Fence to driveway is ~13 feet width. I guess we could stop the line of trees a little short of the street and at least see a little bit of our fence poking through...