Garden Design Magazine is awesome. Also check out the work of Oehme Van Sweden, Martha Schwartz, Barragan, Warren Byrd, oh and ESPECIALLY Ken Smith (famous now for ground zero, much of his early work is EXTRAORDINARY urban gardens, using materials you wouldn't usually think of like aluminum and focusing on themes like sound).

Also, that Rebecca ??? gal, oh she was on some room makeover show, what the heck is her name, her books are great, esp. for container gardening. Crud I even met her once and I can't remember her name - anyone? Ah, COLE! Paradise Found and Potted Gardens are great books she wrote and have a lot of fun examples.

Becky

My back yard in my DC rowhouse is almost the exact size as yours, from the looks of it. I'm in the middle of redoing it. A great book that I got and read through is Small Garden, by John Brookes. It is dedicated to gardening in small spaces, including balconies, porches, courtyards, and small urban backyards. It is also broken down in several easily accessible ways: first by type of backyard, then with an explanation of how to go about planning, and finally with a whole section on plant and flower options, with great pictures.

A television resource, if it rotates through again, is the show Urban Outsiders on HGTV, hosted by Matt James. He specializes in small city yards (his BBCA show is called City Gardener, which was set in Britain) and has absolutely fabulous taste, and can do some astonishing things with small spaces. http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_design_plans_strategy/article/0,,HGTV_3569_4803066,00.html

Your soil looks like it could use some help--you could have a landscaping service truck in topsoil. Two lower cost and more environmentally friendly options would be to check craigslist for fill dirt or top soil (which people often give away free as long as you come pick it up) or call your local stables to see if you can get manure (I know, ick) from them to add to the nutrients in your soil.

People often give away bushes and flowers on craigslist, too, when they are redoing their yards.

I'm not sure what city you are in , BUT if you are in San Francisco and interested in gardening (rather than just straight landscaping) I highly recommend the book Golden Gate Gardening. It specifically addresses all of our microclimates.

I love this book http://www.powells.com/biblio/1-9781591862024-0. It is a great starting place and all the options are really small but you can fit lots of veggies in them.

I used to watch Ground Force on the BBC which specialized in redoing small, rectangular suburban gardens. It seems that everyone living in London's surrounding neighborhoods have gardens just like yours. You may want to check out their books and DVDs from the library.

Also from the BBC, Diarmuid Gavin had a suburban gardening show that was uber-modern and inspiring (although sometimes impractical). He's also got a bunch of books available.

A fabulous resource is http://www.pathtofreedom.com/ .

It's about a Pasadena family that grows tons of vegetables and flowers in their small urban yard.

I have some other urban gardening links on my website at: http://www.culturalrevolutionary.com/

I second Golden Gate Gardening as a required reference tool for gardening in the SF Bay Area. I also recommend "Dig This! Landscaping Without a Backhoe or a Big Budget for Northern California and Beyond" by Kate Anchordoguy. These two books were like bibles around here when we moved from a small balcony garden to close to 3/4 of an acre three years ago. Our fourth year in this garden looks like it will be a beauty. Have a blast!