Beginner Gardening: New urban garden, 2 by javakaty

javakaty wrote:
We moved into a new house last summer, and I'm working on getting a garden set-up this year. Our yard is pretty small, as we live in an urban area, and I am keeping most of the lawn available for our dog to run around in. I'm going to dedicate the side yard (decent sun) to a garden, but am not sure how I want to set it up yet. I'm totally open to suggestions, but one thing that is working against me is that we are going to paint our house this year, and probably will add a bathroom to the basement in the next 2 years or so, which will require us to dig up the house side of this plot, so I don't want to put planters on that side until that work is all complete - but will instead plant directly into the ground in the meantime.
Any suggestions on how to make this space the most usable?