Tips for a tiny garden! (Pics forthcoming)

BadlyDrawnGirl_2

So the new house we're moving into has a teeny-tiny garden area, enclosed by stone walls (it's an old miners' house that's built into the hillside, so the back wall is cut into the hill). I don't know how much sun it gets, but considering it's shaded by the hill on one side and the house on the other, I'd imagine not much. We're hoping to do up the space, as we're planning on getting a couple of chickens, but we'd also like to do a bit of planting and sprucing up. What do you think is the best way of approaching this? Should we try to dig up the soil, or lay topsoil on top of it, or just stick to planters? I was hoping to section off one part of it as a hen run and have the rest paved or covered in gravel to keep it low-maintenance. Maybe some climbing plants on the stone walls? I don't want them to interfere with the masonry though as they're quite old walls...

Anyway, does anyone have any tips for landscaping tiny gardens? Pictures/inspiration? If you couldn't tell, I'm a complete novice at gardening as, well, we've never had a garden before.