Ooooh, some really good ideas here! Seeing sunflowers mentioned reminded me of sunchokes (a.k.a. jerusalum artichokes) which grow tall like sunflowers and are a whole lot easier to grow (I have yet to get sunflowers to grow, but my sunchokes do). They have an edible root that, when cooked tasted like artichoke heart, and like jicima/waterchestnut when raw. It's also full of the prebiotic fiber, inulin, which is good for our gut bacteria but is best introduced slowly into the diet (else gaseousness can result). The sunchokes would be great on the northern fence, and you could grow bean up them, or the perennial groundnut (
apios americana) if you can find tubers of it over there. The ground nut take a while to get established, from what I've been reading, so beans might be a better fit for you right now. Just know that, wherever you plant sunchokes, you will likely have them forever as it's hard to harvest all the roots.
You could also make a tall edible hedge along that fence made of hazelnuts &/or serviceberries &/or nanking cherries, or even a few espalier fruit trees, if your neighbor doesn't mind fruit falling over.
A big bang for your buck over the long term would be berries, like raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, strawberries etc. These should do well in your drizzly climate (at least they do well for me in mine!). And, if berries cost anything over there like they do over here, you'll be getting a lot of savings from even a few bushes. Aaaaand, they're perennial, so require less maintenance. You usually have to wait a year or two for the plant to mature enough to give you berries, though (except for strawberries).
As for animals, if you really want them, maybe you could have two laying ducks? They're quieter and cuter than chickens, and don't say "livestock" nearly as much as cute wild life that decided to live in your garden. Some breeds lay as much, if not more, than chickens. They also eat slugs. And, slugs sure do love our moist climates (and our veggies!). Two small Khaki Campbell or Indian Runner ducks combined will lay you about 10 eggs or more a week, and give you fertilizer for your garden, too!