Then and now, backyard

We salvaged these concrete retaining wall blocks last year from a neighbor yard and arranged them as planters. They have about six square feet of growing space with a foot of soil depth. Their location in the yard is a bit shaded, though, so the peppers, eggplant and tomatoes I planted there last year did not do so well. This year I added soil to increase root depth ability and we cut down the choke cherry tree yesterday, so not as much shade. Plus the dogs had a tendency to jump into the planters. I am putting up a fence.

Two years ago I put in this bed using 8' redwood 2x8's. It holds 64 sq ft of growing space. The first year I grew fennel, carrots, lettuce and spinach if I'm remembering correctly. Not really enough depth for carrots but the fennel did ok--mighty tasty when sauteed. Last year cilantro grew so high I thought it would take over, plus I planted more carrots, lettuce, spinach and garlic chives and zucchini. Not enough soil depth to let the zucchini flourish, but we still got a few squash. This year I put in red and white onions, the garlic chives won't go away, lettuce, turnips, radishes, and peas. It is smack against the shed and that shades it from 4 o'clock so it is a good place to grow cool season crops in the summer.
Another view. I put stepping stones down the middle so the other dirt wouldn't get compacted. I originally filled this bed with bags of compost and cow manure. When I can afford it, I need to add another layer of boards and another 8" of dirt to increase the soil depth.

This is what part of the yard looked like two summers ago after a bad hail storm. We had a window and two skylights broken plus the fence between us and our neighbor to the north fell down. We still haven't fixed it. Luckily our house walls and roof are basically made of concrete and so none of that was damaged.