Back garden introduction

One of the nicer things about my apartment is access to a backyard which has two 4'9" x 7' beds built (and filled with soil) by a previous tenant. Admittedly I do have to climb out of the kitchen window and down a ladder to get to it, but considering that the landlords could just keep all the garden-y goodness to themselves (they live downstairs and have an actual door to access the space) it's a sweet deal. Below is the view from the tiny roof outside the kitchen window.

My beds are on the left, through the branches you can see two other 4' x 8' beds on the right, those were built by the landlords. The rest of the yard features: brick and concrete pathways, overgrown bushes, piles of cut up trees, a pink flamingo, holes dug by the landlords' dog, a bumblebee spring rocker without the spring, rose trellis, and a bright yellow back fence.

I'm keeping the edibles confined to the beds since the building is at least 100 years old so who knows what the lead the situation is. Below is a rough plan of what I'll be trying this spring and summer.

The layout uses square foot gardening spacing and is for two 4x7 areas, leaving a 4.5" strip on each side which will be planted with scallions, herbs, turnips, and the like. I still need to work out how to keep the squirrels and cats out with the roll of wildlife netting I have.