ljrd3, For the first year treat these as potted plants untill the roots grow into the surrounding soil. The water must go directly into the potting soil that came with the plant. Use 12th of a gallon per day if the temperature is in the 70"s. Use 1/6th of a gallon per day if the temperature is in the 80's. Use 1/4 of a gallon per day if the temperature is in the 90's. Delay one day for each 1/4 inch of natural rain. The second year use the same total amounts, however, you can begin to water less frequently using proportionally more each time and also watering a greater area around the plants.

It depends on your needs. Do you need a utility area in which to hide things? Or a place for kids things? Or would it be better to plant a large flowering shrub that grows higher than the fence and creates additional interest? If you have a bed in front of the c.l. fence, it's possible to lessen the length of the fence run so that it doesn't penetrate into the yard so much. You could shorten it by as much as 1/3 or 1/2, depending on the width of the bed that acts to protect people from getting too close to the drop off.

Tanalised gravel boards, damproofing membrane and raise the soil level. All you soil will, eventually migrate through the neighbours fence so although you will need to replace treated timber every 10 years of so, it is not a huge expense.

Here's our deer fence. It's chicken wire on top and buried hardware cloth on the bottom to discourage groundhogs. Metal posts. We researched what would be most cost effective. Hubs built a gate out of scrap lumber. Not sure if you need to terrace it . . . cedar beds are expensive. Perhaps cement blocks? Slight terracing with rocks? We did ours with pressure treated lumber and then lined with plastic to prevent leaching into soil. Not the best but not the worst. Most modern treated lumber doesn't leach that much, and plants other than leafy greens don't pick it up that much either. I researched it. Still, we went with the plastic lining because we had it, inherited from the previous home owners. It's a horrible thing for a garden bed but for lining treated lumber boards is worked good and it was free. But they make all kinds of inexpensive landscape blocks you could use for mild terracing. This is in our front yard. The key is to keep the garden looking good. Or put some shrubs in front of it. Ours has a big norway spruce in front of it. Plus it is small. It's a little jungle like this year but we are slowly making it look more attractive. The white hoops are for the clear plastic cover we put on to extend the season. That was unsightly but only lasted a couple of weeks. We told the neighbors it was only temporary. Next year we will paint those hoops green. Also plan for a set of flowers around the garden to attract pollinators and repel pests. Also a visual aide for the appearance . . . Herbs are fairly floriferous and deer resistant. Took this photo when hubs was putting on cover, the ladder is not part of the plan . . .