Hi Ahelaumakani, If you put a raised bed directly up against your fence, then yes, you would have to worry about rotting it out. You would have to make a bit of room between the fence and whatever you used for the edging of your raised bed to prevent rot. St. Augustine will grow in the shade. Bermuda won't grow in very shady areas (Bermuda can be a gardener's nightmare because it's very invasive. I have it.) I'm not crazy about either of these grasses because they take a lot of water to keep them green; however, these are the two most used grasses in Austin. Others are Zoysia, Buffalo grass (native) and Turfalo. Winter Rye is also sometimes over-seeded into other grasses in the fall. It grows all winter, but then you have to mow in the winter or so I've been told. :-( As edging for a raised bed: cut dry-stacked limestone would be pretty, but might be too expensive. Wood boards work, but will eventually rot. Cinder blocks and bricks would also work. Lowe's and Home Depot also have various concrete pavers & scalloped edgers that might work as well. Or- instead of doing a raised bed, add lots of compost to amend your existing soil or create a lasagna bed as suggested above. Containers also work well as act-upon suggested above. Containers can be arranged and moved around in a variety of configurations, which is a plus, and you can stand one pot behind another and make it taller by putting it on a brick or cinderblock or place several pots on a wooden shelf or two supported by cinderblocks or pavers, if need be. With our heat, I would suggest you use the largest containers possible because they will dry out quickly. Clay pots generally dry out more quickly than plastic but in my opinion, clay pots are prettier. I have plants in clay pots, wash tubs, plastic pots, and one copper pot. Even ugly black nursery pots can be painted with spray paint or house paint in fun colors to make them pretty. I actually put mulch over the soil in some of my container plants. You can intersperse different kinds of containers/pots in a garden bed and that can look good too. You might also purchase or make a trellis for a vine and you can hang a plant wall-pocket or two on your fence to jazz it up. As for Hostas, I haven't seen many grown in Austin, but that doesn't mean it's not possible. Treelover is right that raised beds do dry out more quickly.

Thx radiant heat is certainly an option to consider, for comfort alone when sitting there. The lower outside ground level patio currently has a cement slab for part and treated wood section. Radiant heat feels GREAT. But isn't gas heated air less costly to operate? We have forced air in the house now not a heat pump. And so if electric radient heat is in the solarium (outside the main house) then plants might die if the power goes out in cold weather. Moving to a new house I didn't know well yet and potentially interested in heating an outbuilding shed, solarium, greenhouse, and/or attached garage I did some research. A Williams Direct Vent Gas Wall Heater can do any of these, can be self installed, has a small footprint, and look nice. https://www.williamscomfortprod.com/product/direct-vent-furnaces/ The convection design can keep amazingly even heat even (5 degrees between ceiling and floor) without a fan. It needs no external power. It can be operated on either propane or natural gas, with a $50 conversion pilot kit to switch over. It is reliable and needs little maintainence. When serviced it is a standard gas design and not specialized. Having most of the uses I have now and may want later, I invested in one, starting with propane in an outbuilding. I use two taller trailer-like propane tanks now, to have backup. And installed a cost effective auto tank regulator switch over system for when the current tank goes empty. It all works great. With night 55.7 F temp within 0.5 degrees each night. An indicator shows me when the supply tank depletes. I unscrew the empty and refill it during other errands. If i stay with propare, we'd just call to have a larger rental tank placed here. If we switch to natural gas, then we can use the ophaned tanks for BBQ or potential RV addition. And we sure plan to entertain in summer. You now just about have the whole lot figured out. We are located on a circle with smaller front yard and big generous angular back yard all solud cedar fenced. To reduce labor the front yard was reworked to become lawnless. I'm keeping the RV parking area to the side of the backyard. I'm not turning it into garden, just for resale value alone ... and you never know, when your kids or siblings might request to park there awhile! The 'Nikita's Gift' Persimmon Tree that I got would be kind of tight next to it. And I can't then plant fruit trees or a pea patch there. Our neighbor gifted us 80 fruits this last fall. Pretty convinced now that I like them. You can choose astringent to sweetness level. Does everything well but picks itself. Can pick early before the amass and kitchen counter ripen. Bumper superfood crop that eats well raw, freezes, dries, microwaves, cooks or cans well as jam. Worthwhile if nothing else than for the awesome fall leaf color alone. And looks like a little Halloween themed tree in season with little flying pumpkins like fruits in the air. Since one tree is more than enough for home use. I enhancing this mass fall color effect next to with "Jelena' Witch Hazel. If fact, it is incensing us now! (Photo taken yesterday.) Internet photo of 'Jelena' fall color. And ... ~50 Hyacinths are along the front walkway and a classic "old bourbon" class scent climbing rose* near the front door. The rose is to greet, add interest, and soften the house corner visual effect. * It pays to plant a thornless rose here, especially one with nice deep red new growth for interest sake. The entrance location is northside so partial shade tolerance was important too. I selected 'Zephirine Drouhin' whose combined positive attributes are unusual in a climbing rose. It likely comes from "Arabia" in the middle ages with the Crusades. German gardeners gave it a name that stuck anout a hundred years ago. It's now enjoyed worldwide. I discovered this rose on the front page of a Wayside Garden catalog now many years ago (see their photo below) and have grown it ever since. It's worth the pruning effort and training practice. Nearly thornless means nearly painless. But growing 15-30', don't fall when it gets you out of bounds. Below the rose are several fragrant low growing evergreen Sarcococca humilus 'Fragrant Valley' plants as ground cover. A nice spicey warm greeting scent from it precedes rose blooms from Feb-Mar. And there's little visual indication, where it is coming from, which adds to some real visitor intrigue. What is that ... I smell? The early blooming, highly fragrant Daphne odora planted in front to add interest near the leggy rose bottom is more visually obvious. Nice to have an evergreen here for when the rose is leafless. I selected a variegated leaf variety here for visual contrast with the rose climbing up high from behind. You guessed it, the rose proven in my former shady yard transplanted well as well as an offset of our also pictured 9' tall Giant Himalayan Lily (Cardiocrium giganteum v. yunnanense). They start growing very early in the Spribg even before the 7-8' tall Hydrangea 'Blue Wave' on the left gets going much. They have amazing glossy leaves and first look much like a Hosta, but when mature can look like the stem is a big elevated from the ground. When blooming initates they begin elongating fast better showing the "hosta on a stick" appearance, as they bolt upwards into full bloom. The bold seeming magical flowers have maroon stripes inside and emit a strong sweet spicy "waftable" fragrance that carries well. This begins at dusk and carries through the night. Yunnanense tends to bloom at 8 to 12 ft tall and often has darker blackish stem color and flower markings. The flowers petals often flair out more and look sort of alien. Whereas the type species Cardiocrium giganteum v. giganteum is larger, blooming at 9 to 14'. However, it is a marginally less vigorous in both growing and initiating flowering. Once it initates however, it wastes no time in amazing you. The beautiful fragrant type species flowers have more tubular based Trumpet Lily shaped flowers. They start out creamy green as they begin to open, then shift to white. The first time I bloomed a Cardiocrium I was lucky to bloom all three I had and got both kinds and to compare. I had gotten gallon sized plants two years prior at two different local nurseries, all just labeled Cardiocrinun giganteum. White white flowers, tall above the viewer, of intense fragrance that carries well makes the Giant Himalayan Lily the perfect early summer plant to begin luring you out to enjoy a moonlight garden. The crazy tub planted Yunnanense offset that I moved last February, prompty bloomed here about 3 months later, before I could plant it. With that modest clump having bloomed the year before, I did not expect it! My Cardiocrium were placed in their preferred morning part sun location, the on north side of a shed. And it had been heavily fed in hope. Later these beauties were worked into a design area, near timber bamboo, and hardy banana. Click n' grow the Cardiocrinun giganteum v. yunnanense photo below Can you believe how an early childhood experience might influence in an unsuspecting person's life later? Plant good seeds in fertile ground.

"I don't know what to mix in this case - any thoughts?" Sorry, but I can't suggest appropriate plants as I've spent little time in your part of the world, and none in northern LA. I've spent several weeks based in NOLA for work, that's it. I just wanted you to be aware that you won't get an even dense hedge of one species with the variability of light levels. I have a more casual style (I live on an old farm) than what appeals to you, so instead of hedges of one species, for the most part I have mixed shrubs, with multiples of each species, mixed along the length of the shrub border. Only in one spot do I have a row of all the same species, and that is in full sun from all sides so that the plants grow at a fairly similar rate. My usual suggestion in this type of situation is that you visit neighborhoods where the gardening appeals to you to get ideas, or if there are garden centers or nurseries with demonstration gardens or if there is an arboretum or public park or botanic garden where you can look at the various types of plantings that they have. To get an ID on a particular plant (if it's not in a situation where it is labeled) take photos of leaves, blooms or fruit, branches and the whole plant, and post on the Name that Plant forum. Or visit the public library and look for books that have landscaping photos for your general area or look at photos here on Houzz that are from your part of the US and see what inspires you. You want to keep in mind that you don't want a huge amount of pruning (so check growth rates once you know names) and that you don't want excessive amounts of shedding of blooms, leaves, seeds, and branches, so something that blooms all summer might be messier than you want to groom. Here's a photo from Derviss Design/Michelle Derviss - she sometimes participates in these forums. Though her area is different (CA coast) it shows a similarly shaped yard with varying light levels around the perimeter and so a mix of plants. She hasn't tried to totally cover up the fence, but there is a mix of different textures and foliage color and varied plant heights. If you look at the closer photos of the pots (go to link below) they also rely largely on foliage rather than flowers. I am not suggesting that you try to emulate this, just that this is one way to approach your problem. http://www.houzz.com/projects/312471/napa-valley-outdoor-living

Things that are toxic for us aren’t necessarily for other critters. Often plants growing along a fence like this are bird-planted, where the bird perched on the fence and pooped out a seed from fruit eaten elsewhere, including nightshades IME. I don’t know about rabbits and chickens specifically with nightshades, and not all nightshades are toxic in all plant parts (we eat potatoes and tomatoes but not the foliage), but I imagine that once you know the species you can look up what critters might find it toxic.