On the west side of the house there is an area with no lawn growing that is about 2' wide by 5' long before you run into the air conditioning unit. Usually on the otherside of the a/c my mom plants her marigolds and cosmos but on the north end she told me I could do what I want. There are no trees around or anything to cast shade except the house and the area is pretty well contained by my stepdad's mowing and weed eater so even invasive plants aren't much of a problem. If nothing else they'll just escape into the hostas on the north side of the house and do no damage.
Last year I spread a whole bunch of wild flower seeds and had a little flower garden but not much of it seems to be coming up again. I'd like to add some colorful flowers and herbs, mostly perenials, and as much of it edible as possible. Mostly for my guinea pigs which we feed the equivalent of the BARF diet for dogs. They eat only hay and fresh greens we collect from the yard and garden everyday. Of all the commercial animal foods guinea pig and other small animal diets have the crappiest ingredients. I don't have much experience growing flowers aside from the marigolds and cosmos my mom grows every year so anyone have any suggestions? So far all I have are a couple spearmint plants started.