Here's my dilemma and I'm hoping that knowledgeable freepers can give me some good ideas without spending a lot of money.
I'm in SW Pennsylvania near Pittsburgh. There is a 12' x 18' area which gets neither good shade nor good drainage as it is bordered on the south by my walkout basement, on the north by a storage shed, on the east by a driveway (the only direction from where it will consistently get direct sunlight and on the west by a steep downslope an retaining wall.
If I had the money to roof it or put in a deck, I'd probably consider it. But it is out of the question.
I have taken out about 3.5 feet with mulch on the 18' side because it is under the eaves of the house and, of course, I want water to drain away. However, what remains, tends to accumulate water, particularly during and after heavy rains.
And, of course, its location means the potential for a lot of foot traffic, so hydrophyllic clover (which I tried), had limited success. When it isn't accumulating water, it is mostly growing moss which is nice and low maintenance over the grass which once grew there, but I'm not sure moss is the best solution either.
I just started gardening about 3 or 4 years ago, so I’ll just throw my 2 cents in for what it is worth. Take it with a grain of salt.
I am not sure exactly what you are facing - A picture might help to visualize, but You will need to have about 8 hours of sun minimum to grow any veggies. You can’t really do much to increase the sunshine with out tearing down or moving obstacles.
Your planting beds will need to be located to take advantage of the longest sun exposure. Either that or plant in containers and move them as needed.
If the slope is located where you can do it, I like to terrace the area which gives me a level place to plant on each level.
Raised beds and/or containers will help to mitigate the drainage issue. As for your basement, I don’t think you should never have moisture if the basement has been constructed correctly.
One thing is that your yard should slope away from your house on all sides. You should also have guttering and downspouts with long extensions if needed to take the water far away from the house.
The best solution to basement moisture is to excavate the area. Paint the basement walls with tar (outdoors). Lay drainage pipe, and cover with large gravel/small rocks. Cover with sufficient soil for what you intend to plant.
Hope that helps.
Here’s a link you may be interested in. It gives some general guidelines for container planting(not just Arizona), hours of sun needed etc.
http://ag.arizona.edu/pubs/garden/mg/vegetable/container.html