I tried my hand at vegetable gardening this year and to say that it was unsuccessful would be putting it mildly. My onions were painfully small, my carrots were miniature and black, my tomatoes had blight, and though I was able to grow one 5 lb. zucchini, the slugs sucked the rest of the plant dry all summer. I did grow some beautiful snap peas. Unfortunately, I waited too long for them to plump on the vine so each pea turned into a bitter, hardened version of itself.
I did learn some things, though. Mostly that the areas I was trying to plant in were not ideal for growing vegetables. The ground along the rock wall is hard-packed clay and completely filled with the roots of the two lilac bushes. Same goes for the bed along the house were there is a stump from what used to be some sort of evergreen. I also had concerns about planting edibles so close to the foundation. The house isn't that old (it was built in 1950) but who knows how many years of lead paint have been scraped off of it and dropped into the soil.
I will say this: I love this side garden anyway. When we moved here a couple of years ago, there was an ugly path made of brick-colored cement circles placed directly on weeds and grass and if you didn't step exactly in the middle of the stones, they would kick up in the back and nail you right in the Achilles tendon. We put this gravel path in last spring and we like it so much better!
There also used to be overgrown weeds and ivy along the rock wall here with no beds at all so last fall I piled on leaves from all around the yard and left them there all winter. By spring, the leaves had killed everything underneath it and I had a clear bed waiting for me. Did you know it was that easy? I've done this same thing with newspaper in the backyard and it totally works.
I'll plant things again here next spring but I'll be moving the vegetable garden to the backyard (if I plant one at all, they are a little high maintenance for me). I'm thinking herbs in pots and maybe some more ornamental grasses here this time. We shall soon see.