Frank, You could have a small patio with an unbrella (if there is sun) which would also give you privacy from any onlooker above your yard, and you can have beautiful decorative containers with nice evergreen plants in them placed in areas to give you a view. You can grow anything in a container. You could have a trellis with a nice vine growing on it, mabey something that smells nice on a hot summer night. You would be surprised at how many gorgeous plants you could have around your small yard. Good Luck.

OK I know this is not the "organic" forum, but when you said round up did you mean Round-Up? No need for that! How raised beds and the lasagna method? Make a few at a time...3-5 feet wide by however long you want. Scrounge some cardboard boxes (the bigger the better) from grocery or home improvement stores. Soak the cardboard well, and cover with grass clippings, mulch, straw, leaves etc and start planting. The grass underneath will just die and add more organic matter to the soil. If you don't want to spend (or don't have) money for raised beds, just build the piles right on the ground. Lay the cardboard and just pile the stuff on. You can gradually end up covering up all (or most) of your lawn. You could leave grass paths the width of your mower, or you could eventually cover the whole lawn. Just make sure you put down a good layer of cardboard or newspaper to keep the grass from growing up, and keep adding all the organic material you can come up with. Watch the curbs for grass clippings and leaves. Kathy in Illinois

You need to think about sun and shade. This is a function of compass orientation and tall buildings or trees. I notice you have pictures of sunny areas with lots of trees that look like they need a lot of sun in a small yard ringed by shade-producing trees, walls and the house. This is actually what I don't like about computer-rendered drawings; they ignore reality, which is that you will have some areas of deep shade in that yard, which will limit what you can plant. You also have what looks like a shrub between your pergola and the house, in a spot that is likely to be a very shady spot. If you plant it small, it will be too shaded by the porch to grow. If you plant it at the size it is now, it will outgrow the space quite quickly. In addition, your guttering will probably drain water away from that garden plot and the surrounding hardscape will reduce run-off, so that area may get little natural water. In short, it looks to me like it is bound to be someplace where it will be hard to get any plants to grow.

I think you could do something w/the flower beds next to the fence, like this you could do a raised bed using any of these masonry border materials and plant whatever goes w/your climate/sun level) then maybe bring in some DG (decomposed granite) for the gravel base, or whatever this gray pebble is. maybe some large boulders against the fence. Bring in some pavers or stepping stones you could do a plastic pond tub, get a little fountain (you'll need electrical tho) and have some water lilies in it. surround it w/large pavers. then just decorate. furniture, those garden lights, some foliage and colorful planters