The plan for this year's garden to change from a raised-bed arrangement, with wood-chip paths and poor soil to a more informal, cottage/potage garden style with some architectural elements to break-up the site.  The choice to put a fence--taller in front, then on the sides, is two-fold. First, we want to keep the dog out of the garden. Trained to keep to the paths in the raised-bed arrangement, he is a bit scattered in the uncontrolled space. Second, in the overall scheme of the property, the garden needs to break up the landscape a bit, and become a "room" all its own. The fence will help define this, create another micro-climate, and provide a backdrop on which to grow several things. The front-face of the fence will also help screen the garden from the house at the times when it is not looking its best.      To further enhance this garden we will be transferring the herbs from another location where they are not thriving and we will be placing them in beds at the center of the plan. We may be adding other design elements as they become necessary and to add height and structure.  We are leaving the old compost bins where they are for the moment, but we have moved the rabbit hutches from the back of the garden where they received a good deal of wind, to the front corner where the house and fence should shelter them from the worst of the off-shore blasts. This is a hot garden in the summer, but cold and damp during the rest of the year.  We are hoping by adding as much sand and organic material to the clay soil and by using a creative planting arrangement to diminish this problem.  We are working the heavy soil with a tractor first to break it up and re-distribute as much material as possible. Later once the beds are established we will use either a small tiller, or hand digging to work in plant specific soil amendments. Several hardscape elements, such as a small dry-laid stone wall, may never happen. We  are attempting to do this garden on a zero dollar budget, spending money only necessary seeds and plants and not on the foundations.  If it works and we like it enough to keep in the future, we will increase the budget for the look and feel of the garden.  It is at best a test to see what we can do in this space at this time. By no means is it what we really want in a garden, or, if we had a choice of location, where we would place a kitchen garden.