Little lost gardener, we're in very similar situations, even down to the size of our new back yards. Last year I grew everything in pots because I was pondering and reading and I had cherry tomatoes until we had a hard freeze. Last winter I put in two 4 foot by 4 foot raised beds. I've got FULL sun in my back yard, no tree cover at all. My lettuces in one of the raised beds did beautifully, and even survived 2 frosts with only a sheet tossed over them at night, until the hot weather made them bolt. Radishes were great too. Your tomatoes should have plenty of room given your description. All the best of good luck with your new house and garden! And don't be afraid to experiment -- I've put some grocery store ginger into the ground, hoping it will grow, and I've got sprouts. Same thing with grocery store garlic -- I think I've got big garlic bulbs happening. I can't begin to tell you how much fun you're going to have! (And if something shrivels up and dies don't beat yourself up -- chalk it up to a learning experience, try to figure out what caused it, and then decide whether or not to try that plant/crop again. I won't go into my miseries with zucchini and The Dreaded Squash Vine Borer....!)

We finally got started planting behind the raised bond beam! Talk about a lot of work! We had to build a retaining wall behind the curved portion of the wall with Castlerock, and those things are heavy! I haven't planted anything along the new sundeck, but hope to start that today. We also still have four Pygmy Date Palms for behind the raised bond beam, that we have to plant. Two will flank either side of the CI Date Palm for some added privacy. Here is a close up of the area we planted: I'm super pleased with the look of the ferns. We're lucky in that we only get about 1 hour of direct sun there a day, and it's from about 5:30PM - 6:30PM. Hopefully these Kimberly Queens will thrive there. I looked forever, before finding these bowls for the lower portions of the bond beam. There is a really good nursery, showcased in Southern Living, in a nearby town. They're my go-to place for hard-to-find Texas plants, and they have awesome decorative items. The bowls look amazingly like Oklahoma Wister flagstone! I've planted this combo before. It'll be white in the back (Angelonia), Liriopi in the middle as a perennial, and eventually the purple Scaevola and New Gold Lantana should spill over the front. With the Blue Plumbago in the back, the color combo should look nice. In about a month, it should be totally full. All I'll have to do is change out the annuals each season for color. The fence is in. Now all we have left is the flagstone inlay and the flagstone on the steps and we're done!

It's best if you limit the scope of the thread to a specific area -- like the front yard -- or the discussion will become confusing. The back yard can go in another thread. (best) Or you can wait until the discussion of the front yard is done before talking about the back yard. For the front yard foundation planting area, your pictures are much too far away. It would be best if you didn't use the panoramic camera feature but took single, slightly overlapping shots that pan across the front of your house, beginning by aiming the camera at the left neighbor's house and finishing with the right neighbor's lot. The place to stand with the camera is at the left edge of the drive at the city sidewalk. Please move the vehicles before taking pictures.

Arch you are right, we are close to neighbors and we used to have a patio but we built the addition over it, and added the glass doors to get direct access. the house is 34" above grade which is why we thought of the deck that is a few steps down from the house - privacy + more integrated with the lawn and paver stone area. our architect started with steps down, but they projected out 9' (3' landing + 3 risers + 3' landing). this is required to meet code without guardrails. it was also wide -- I think 12'. therefore, we thought this took up too much yard space and chopped up the area we'd want for adult hangout close to the house. we thought the deck that is a few steps down doesn't waste as much space, gives us a good location to the house / kitchen, privacy and we'll use it more when it's closer to the kitchen. we're thinking of Aztek decking. any other ideas? if there was a concise way to get to ground level we'd prefer that, but we need 3' landing at the door and each riser can't be more than about 7.5" per code. included the first option from architect with the steps down and landing. thank you all!!