I have a small 11' x 14' courtyard surrounded by concrete block walls on 3 sides that gets decent sun, not much shade in the summer. The problem is that the only part that gets full sun is right square in the middle, because the sun moves across one end of it from side to side. It currently has a few things in it from the previous tenants, including a banana and giant elephant ear on one side, which I've kept because it was the only shade there. I want to take everything out in the spring and completely redo it. I'd like to grow mostly veggies, (I have other space outside the apartment where I can grow ornamentals) but need to leave one corner for my shade plants.

I'm going to have to go vertical and stick to mostly things like greens and beans and other veggies that don't strictly need full sun around the edges. I'm thinking of a 4' wide raised bed in the middle for tomatoes, peppers and squash. I only grow a couple of varieties of each, so that should be plenty of room. That leaves 5 feet on either side, and of course, some of that has to be for paths, which I'll make as narrow as possible.

So picture this: and 'E' shaped garden, with a fatter middle leg. 3' wide on either side and the back, 4' wide in the middle. So all total, I'll have the 3 legs (4x11, 3x11 and 3x11) and the two 2x3 ft. back fillers for a total of 122 sf of growing space. Not sure how to figure in the shady corner, but I should still be able to get 100 sf of gardening space out of it. If I grow mostly vertical, that should be enough for me and a little to share.

I'm trying to work it all out on paper. I tried a free online garden planner site, but couldn't figure out how to make it work for the life of me. Does this sound like an efficient layout to you? Like I said, I'll have to take everything out to make it work, but it would be well worth it, I believe.

Oh, and there is a 4x14' concrete porch/patio, so I'll have somewhere to sit, relax and watch the garden grow.