What's going on above your yard, in that upper wall area? When I see that, I think... hmmm.... potential! You could do espaliered fruit trees like Mac said, or just run a plastic wrapped hog fence along the front and grow sweet peas or beans all along the length (or berries). I'd make one of those fabulous boxes for either side of my patio, plant something sweet smelling in them, and then run a couple posts with some wire or posts over the patio for summertime. Or a couple of citrus (looks like you could get at least two on either side) in pots/boxes by the patio. No worries on your speed, a garden is never done! Honestly, I'd go out and start filling up the boxes. Grab some quick plants from a nursery, put them in there.... The more you're out there tending to your new plants, the more you'll become accustomed to the space and get a better feel for what you want and what will work (sun/shade/bugs/etc). Where are you in Washington? I think of berries, blueberries could be planted above the retaining wall with some other perennial bushes and would provide fruit and beauty. Blackberries, maybe an apple, cherry or pear tree? Some of the best pears I've ever eaten came from a backyard orchard in WA. Cool weather crops... you could plant peas and beans and potatoes this fall... OOHHHH or the upper area could be your "squash/melon" zone!!! If you made a couple of areas with good soil (boxes or in-ground), you could plant squashes/melons up there and let them go wild.

hahaha! lurking in the rose bushes is more appropriate for me, Jim! I am stilllll wondering where! JeffAurora is! I haven't seen his roses, seems like forever! and I'm ready to POUNCE! Yeah, Harold, great to see you too, makes things lively! especially since now I'm going to have an itsy bitsy debate with Jim right now. Jim, Karl's method is completely different than his other method, simply burying the pots in the ground with external winter protection. That first method Karl mentioned is called Minnesota tipping which is completely different than the simple buried pot method. Minnesota tipping is when you are burying the entire! plant underground. That does guarantee 100% survival, but for most people that is simply not feasible. Burying takes too much real estate. There's no room! to do Minnesota tipping for each pot when your lot is blockaded by other roses. I have my doubts about what Ehow says about tilting the pots. The main reason is that the holes are evenly dispersed and you have to consider that tilted pots means tilted soil which can erode away exposing too much roots and cane should heavy November rains pelt away at one's plants. I think tilting is a very! bad idea. Plus my pots are very large! and deep. It should have no troubles in terms of drainage I feel. Usually even moderate-heavy rain are only 2" high. I'd rather take the risk of drainage than soil eroding away from my canes and roots, exposing them to freezing ice. That would surely kill my rose. Also, when a pot is as huge and deep as mine, it won't turn into an ice cube. It's too large. My pots, by the way are all plastic. Actually, heheh! come to think of it, even if it were terra cotta and were to crack, that's o.k. too! you see, then with a cracked terra cotta pot it's easy to remove the plant from the cracked pot and transplant it and! you wouldn't have any drainage problems because any excess water would just drain out. In fact a cracked terra cotta pot would just make my life "easy", lol! but no, I have a plastic pot to wrestle with come spring! P.S. I'm so happy to hear that Sue's vision has returned that is TERRIFIC news! I am keeping those prayers rollin' for her! Hurray!

Sorry about the late response, but I have been doing lots of other things. First thing that I notice is that there is very little space between the fence and the box. Will that be practical? If you don't want to do too much walking there, consider have vines fill that area (if cukes, then you might also install a trellis thing to make them easier to pick). Got that off my chest. Get some soil in there so that the worms can get going on it. It should be ready to plant in the early spring. Peas can go in early and they can be fixing some nitrogen in the soil so that you can follow with something like peppers. Lettuce and radishes can also go in early. When those items are done, then the soil will be warming up enough to get other veggies in the same spots. Are you considering using one of the small boxes for nothing but herbs? Dill will self-sow, so that will work; oregano, thyme, chives, sage, etc. are good to have and don't need a lot of attention. You can add the annuals as you need them. Put it on paper, see if it will work. Don't grow it unless you will eat it when ready or you are willing to preserve it some way. A comment about kids in the yard. My granddaughters were here over this past weekend and they were thrilled to hear me talk about what grows and what doesn't. Don't pretend that all is perfect. Let the kids know that nature can turn on you; later they will appreciate the lesson. The girls really liked smelling the herbs. So many different aromas that they are not exposed to when they shop with their mother. Take pictures of things as they grow so that you can remind the kids what things looked like 60 or 90 days ago. Jim

Brad, No Susan Weber has not been a good bloomer for me either, but, its staying here as I really like the few blooms it does put out. Its always been planted, but, this year its in a pot, and did produce a better bloom on a taller scape, so I will keep it in the pot, and try babying it a little and see ifit will improve.Have to keep all my daylilies in pots now, since I moved a few months ago anyway, as the ground is sooo hard, cant dig a hole in it anyway. I didn't have good soil before and had added amendmwnts for years to it, but,at least Ic ould dig a hole in it to plant some thing.Here , I cant even do that. I had my grandson trying to dig a hole , for me,andhes a nice stout young man and he tried several places to dig a hole for me, but finally gave up and said we need some thing besides a shovel to dig a hole in this.I even , watred the spot forever and it didn't help either.so pots is the only way to grow anything.