I wouldn't add goldfish, or any fish. I tried a small pond that was in the ground and the water got too hot for mosquitofish which can take warmer water than goldfish. Being completely above ground even in the shade I'd expect the water temp to be way too high. With the dark color and 50% in the sun the water might be too hot even for plants, or maybe some plants. I've been growing Canna and some kind of Umbrella Plant like Cyperus alternifolius and a nutsedge (purple I think) in soil in containers with no drainage, so standing water but normally below the soil level. That mimics how I keep marginal plants in a pond which grow best not submerged. The sun, heat and humidity are hard on these. These are all pretty much in the ground, but the further up out of the ground the least well they do. I've repotted plants that have been in the sun and the soil is much too hot for me to touch. I've been experimenting with different sun exposure. Canna barely survive full sun. Morning sun seems to be best, til 10 am. Enough sun to bloom, not too much to stunt them. So I don't really have any tips for what you're wanting. If you want a water feature I suggest you just do that. Then add plants for the cooler months, or if some make it thru the summer then great (let me know what). Maybe something like a pondless feature. 5 gal bucket with holes goes contains a small pump, kept up off the bottom by a brick. Then fill with rocks/stone around the bucket. At the very top you can add a more expensive rock for looks. Add water so it stays below the rocks. The fountain hits the rocks and sinks back down to the pump. Plants can be placed in the gravel/rocks either bare root or the whole pot with soil. But you have to make sure the water level stays up to at least say 6" from the top. A fountain might be hard on most plants which don't like to be covered in water. And you could get lime deposits on leaves. Because there's no standing water you don't have to deal with string algae or mosquito larva. I've had container ponds other places, NY, FL, CA, and none of that applies in Phoenix. I used to read gardening books and web sites and watch gardening TV shows, but don't any more...just doesn't apply to us.

Sounds like you're on the right track already, lovely arrangement! The substrate sounds good but with that mix you do have to water more often, and with that temperature I'd say you're pretty close with twice a week watering, or every 4-5 days, but still observe your plants and see if they're happy with it. Make sure you protect them from too much direct sun, although most of the plants there love full sun so they should be okay

Would anyone have basil, spinach, cilantro, rosemary, mixed greens seeds they can give? TY! JS

I had a similar experience last year with my peppers. They did miserably in the raised bed, and really well in the containers. Tomatoes in containers also out performed my raised bed ones. I was using MG potting mix in the containers . But I had the opposite experience with cucs. They did better in the raised bed. My tomatillos also did amazing in the raised bed. I realized this year (before starting my Year 2 veggie garden) that the reason for this inconsistency was 1) watering, 2) fertilizing and 3) my raised beds were new (triple mix, mannure, top soil).4) planting temps I was over watering everything. Basically not letting soil dry out a bit. Which caused a lot of problems. I didn't think I needed to fertilize the raised beds, because I figured the manure and organic granular fertilizer was enough. I didn't realize these things take time to break down and become available for plants. I planted my peppers/tomatoes in the raised bed too soon and they were stunted. I also used SFG method and cramped the tomatoes in the raised bed way too closely, resulting in some bacterial and fungal issues. So there was a lot of learning from Year 1 to Year 2 for me. My conclusion last year was that containers were better than the raised bed and my plan was to max out on containers this year. After some research and thanks to the helpful folks on this board, I was able to properly time my planting and water when needed. So far, I am having excellent growth and yields from both the raised beds and the containers. My plan is to move over exclusively to raised beds next year.