Help me sanity-check my 9b garden?

Nice to meet you all! I finally got my own space to play with, ~18x18 in a community garden. This is my first time properly growing food plants in in 9b (Cali central valley), and the first in a long time I've felt confident I'll have space for a few years. Naturally I've gone a little mad with power (and possibilities!), and I could use more experienced eyes to reign me in


There's a few constraints to work with:
- Garden rules: no trees, no brambles, try to avoid aggressive plants, generally nothing that's a big pain for neighbors/the next guy
- Water scarcity: trying to be smart with irrigation/mulch, favoring plants that can go a bit between deep watering.
- No invasives of course


Alright, on to the garden:

Tepary patch (~4x9):
Tepary bean: alone off to the side since they take so little water and I'm a bit afraid I'll kill them.

Sisters patch (~13x9):
Right now, it's set up with the standard 3 + bee balm, though only the corn and bee balm are seeded. Main impetus for posting here is temptation to try a perennial variant, which I've never done before--okra and tree kale (I can only eat so much okra), scarlet runner beans, sweet potato. I'm not sure how the okra will fare come winter here, there's conflicting reports.

Nightshade patch (~7x9):
Ground cherry, pepper, pepito dulce, basil, oregano, considering chucking some borage in there. My understanding is that the three nightshades can survive our mild winters with a little prep. My question to you experienced permies: when growing as perennials, should you spread them out instead of clumping them together? I'm used to growing in a pretty short season and thinking in terms of crop rotation. If they should be spread, they'll be mixed in with...

patch (~7x9):
This is where the okra goes if it's not going in the sisters patch. There's also brussels sprouts here because, frankly, I expected to be able to get things in the ground sooner and seed started them awhile back. Mexican marigold's here too! If the perennial three sisters sounds OK, I might try Chenopodium californicum in place of okra as a kind of perennial amaranth experiment.

Wildflower patch:
Inherited raised bed, I'm just stuffing it with native wildflowers and a few strawberries. Maybe a little bee-watering station if I can get it rigged up. Also keeping a little baby brush pile with dead canes cleared from a shared berry patch, a little extra shelter for spiders and friends, hopefully...


cutting-edge visual:

    North(ish)
--------------------
|  sisters         | wf   |
|                      |        |
|                      |        |
-----------------------
| ns     |    |tep  |
|          |          |        |
|          |          |        |
---------------------------


Other info: no till, got compost and manure in. Soil honestly not that bad, only really clay-y at the back. Straw as mulch once all the seeds are going. Irrigation's drip line, those little faucet-like emitters for now, switching to stakes as plants get established. "Hedge" of nasturtiums on the south edge. I definitely welcome any advice, and thanks much for your time!

Sounds good, please keep us posted about results.

Sounds like a good project. I’d break down the beds into double-reach width, and use the pathway soil to raise make them deeper. You could do a central linear path, or get creative with keyholes to minimize path space, and create microclimates with different aspects.

I'm in zone 9 b. I haven't had tomatoes or peppers survive the winter. The year before last 2 tomatoes and a pepper almost made it. They were alive in February I think? I cleaned up my garden. I think the lack of all the dead stuff around the plants, maybe helping keep them warm, caused them to die.  I tried to keep a habanero pepper alive this winter. I transplanted it from the garden to a pot. I put it in my unheated greenhouse. It didn't make it.
In zone 9 b it doesn't freeze often, or very hard, but It does freeze.  To keep nightshades alive they need to be pruned, heavily mulched, and covered, so I have read. I haven't managed it yet.  I did get lots of tomato seedling volunteers, almost as good.
Have fun, and good luck to you.