hi Can't help much as I'm in S. florida though any thing I grow would probably do even better there ?? I've give up on Citrus due to the Tristeza virus often called "Greening" Has destroyed thousands of trees here. Has it shown up there?? I grow most veggies in the winter due to the summer heat and humidity though this year summer, lasted til dec 31st lol Someday I will learn to stick with tropicals??lol Good luck with your project sounds like fun!! gary

Check out this video by Rosalin Creasy, the queen of edible landscaping. She also has a Web site. Then follow any links from there. You'll find a lot of inspirational photos and resources online. Yaardvark's basic design can be followed, you just need to figure out edible plants with the shapes he has drawn that thrive in your zone. I'm not that up on edible weeping plants, but lots of big shrub-shaped edible fruits and there are also fruit trees that have a columnar shape (column shape) such as sentinel apple trees. Raspberries and blackberry tend to get droopy and weepy-ish shaped (fountain shaped). There are edible easy to maintain groundcovers too, like lingonberry, although they need acid soil to thrive so you may have to amend. I grew bearberry which also goes by the name kinnikinnick as a groundcover. It is not really "edible" so much as medicinal, where it goes by the name Uva ursi. Lots of herb ground covers like thyme and chamomile and some low growing mints. There's also wintergreen but that needs shade and can be fussy. Not too much in the way of edible evergreens although you can grow balsam or fraser fir in some zones and collect the needles for their scent and oil. With juniper you can harvest the berries and make gin. Some junipers are columnar. Some make good groundcover, a fairly common low maintenance option for small yards. Edited to add that you're going to have to be thoughtful about planting your front yard since most edible plants like sun or partial sun, and your sun is going to be filtered at best. Try not to plant things in the shade of other things, so watch where the shadows fall during a whole day at different times.

some ideas:

"My thought for the steps was.... Would that also work?" Show it in a simple plan so we can see what you mean. In the drawing are shown placeholder for plants. They are suggestions of size, form, placement, arrangement general organization .... not actual plants. People don't know where you live so it'd be hard to suggest plants. Remove all of the palms?