Have you thought about making a light weight pvc frame, anchring it, and covering with plastic?

I've modified your picture to illusltrate an easy way to do what you want.

The red line outline is the left "side" of your plot. The blue line is the right side. Get a piece of rebar at least 8 feet long. Drive it into the ground at the point marked as "C". It will form the line "B-C". Get a piece of 1X2 or 1X4 lumber and fasten it to the fence at point "A" and to the rebar at point "B". Get some Visqueen or similar transparent/translucent material. Drape it over the wood and secure it there with staples. Gather the material along the edge parallel to "A-B", tie a piece of twine/parachute cord at each corner and in the center. Tie the cord to the back fence. Quick, easy, adjustable, cheap.

Uh, I see, thanks. It was very kind of you to offer the pictorial demo! And to both of you - at least now I have some feedback to chew on as food for thought.

- the hard parts are - for shrimp with no car:

(1) getting rebar to the house
(2) getting an 8' rebar into tough ground
(3) getting proper lumber to house
(4) getting the latter fastened from fence to rebar

P.S. Meantime I got a HORRENDOUS case of poison ivy, merely in my attempt to clear that pitiful plot of ground. I'm suffering to the Nth degree, and the doctor put me on Prednisone pills plus cream. But still suffering.

So I need to take a long break from computer (due to EMFs heating up my body, thereby worsening both my poisoned parts, as well as my long-existent cysts.

Is there any other gardenWeb forum where people can help with this? There were so many Sub-Forums - it was hard to decide.

I'm afraid with everything I'm up against, I got my greenbean and summer-squash packets for nothing. By the time I'd ever by a miracle get healed of Ivy, plus get it all pat, the summer will have passed by.

This post was edited by jally on Sun, May 18, 14 at 19:51

just an update to say that my hands are still with painful and/or itchy blisters, some in finger crevices or knuckles (those are worst)

Already tried:

fluocinonide cream (from doctor - burned & worsened it)
cortisone & fluticasone cream (from doctor - no help)
hydroxazine HCL pills (from doctor - no help)
methyl Prednisolone pills (from doctor - no help)
Technu wash (no help, and may have spread it more)
Florasone (boericke/tafel) - no help, even burned
Caladryl - OK
Aveno (beige & navy 4 oz. intense lotion) - OK
Zinc oxide cream - OK
pascalite +tea-tree-oil & aloe-gel - OK
peppermint-oil bathing (this is relieving)

As I said before. If you want light easy to buy/carry stuff to make a structure to support plastic covering, get pvc. The 3/4" is sturdy. You can you also buy the ready made elbows and 45 degree angles to join the pieces
I bought a pile of this stuff at Home Depot and because I was bringing it back from across the border, bought it in the 2' pre-cut sections. You can make the shape something like Apprenticegardener's drawing with as much effort as putting together lego.

Hi, Lori & all - sorry for the months-long delay. I don't even remember if I was eNotified of your last response, but I browsed back here, due to wanting to reference this past post.

...OK, by now I've been healed from the poison ivy (no thanks to the AMA) - by self-helping
...(applied wound-honey Atop Basic-Calamine on the worst palm-burns, topped with Duct-tape, and other spreadable-strategies for the rest of my arms & legs. Also Oolong & hibiscus tea drinking plus squeezing/rubbing the juice of bags on hands/wrists.

Regarding PVC:

I don't think I can drag an 8' long PVC pipe onto local buses. So my question is:

Can I easily tote a bunch of shorter lengths via bus system, and then connect them?

I don't have a staple gun to staple plastic to wood (not that I have the correct lumber, or know how to tote that home either).

Note that by now, after all the hard hard work clearing the grass, the brown-dirt area that you see in my pic. is already overgrown with tons of grass.
So I got to thinking about this other possible option:

POSSIBLE SELF-WATERING PALLET+TARP OPTION:

I have a wood pallet. So maybe I can use my reciprocating saw to saw off the wood from the underside, and then flip the pallet over, and lay it on one of those large blue tarps, then drape the tarp over the rims to create a self-watering trough?
As alternative to this:

Here is a link that might be useful: self-watering system

You can buy 2 foot sectins of pvc or do like I did. I took a hacksaw with me and cut to size in the parking lot after purchasing. You can order clamps from acf or johnnies . Check diameters of clamps before buyjng pvc. They do hold the plastic firmly.

I see & thanks for the info! But I'm thinking that for all the hassle, the hypothetical garden wouldn't get protected anyway in case of heavy rain. Also, due to lots of tough roots, not sure anything could grow.

Would the above-mentioned pallet option work? I also posted the video link.

I am really puzzled. Why would you want to garden where the ground would not sustain any type of crop, let alone worry about protecting the area from a storm?

I can't imaging doing the self watering situation with an old pallet and it probably would not be feasible for you since it would entail bringing in good soil. And soil weights a lot more than pvc or any of the other building materials suggested by other posters.

I will be removing my option of notifications regarding this post as I do not feel that I can possibly come up with any suggestions to help because of the severe limitations you face. Sorry I can't be of any help. Good luck with whatever project you settle on.

I actually have a bag of miracle gro from the past, so thought I'd mix it in with soil I already have.

OK, well, I see you removed notifications, but that's for the record. As for luck, my name begins & ends with bad luck, but thanks for the wishes - hey the whole world is slated for chaos by the end of month anyway...at least according to many predictions.