The limit I'm thinking of is $5,000.  That's what it would cost to get a stacked stone retaining wall in my sloped backyard.  Instead I went back to grad school.  Do I, at times, question this ordering of priorities?  Yes!  But for today we'll let it stand, and figure out what can be accomplished without the $5,000 or the wall.

This is my bit of garden by the side of the porch from a couple of years ago:

There.  That's for encouragement.  I don't have a pic from last year.  Things get much bigger.  Today it's supposed be 60 degrees in our Zone 6 town, I'm planning to go out there and hack some stuff.