Thanks everyone for your inputs. just what I was looking for. Planatus, I havent tried it here (central Illinois) before, so we will see how it works out. I have another 12X12 sq ft plot, where I plan to plant some squash, no pole beans though. Julia, we are just 2 people. I am glad that you raised this point. May I ask how many okra plants do you normally have in your 3' X 3' area? Is it 3 - 4 as you said in your last sentence? As far as my plan is concerned, do you like the layout? I mean I am planning to have taller plants at the North and progressively go towards shorter plants at the South end. That should be fine right? Any comments about the spacing? Is it too much I am leaving there? Is there any vegetable other than radish I can plant within tomato or okra rows? Because right now if I plant only radish in there, I fear I will have too much. Thanks.

I don't think I could do it, move that is. Not after 25 years of turning a nothing yard into flowers and beautiful shrubs. what I would suggest is collecting seeds from all of your annuals that you possibly can. Take cuttings of all perennials that you can and start rooting them now. If you wait any longer to start rooting them or taking root divisions, it will be too late to try and plant them in your new home. Maybe you should wait till next year and start the plans to sell in the spring. That way you will have all your annual seeds and divisions and root cuttings to start in your new home. Of course, you could do what a neighbor of mine just did. She'd lived in her home for over 40 years and moved into an in-law apartment with her son. This elderly woman dug up just about all of her perennials and annuals then end of july and moved them with her to her new home. She had to have had at least 200 plants with her. She did ask the new owners what, if any, plans they had for her gardens. They where kind enough to tell her they where going to demolish 5 of her garden beds to add on to the house and throw out all of the plants.!!!!! That's all she needed to hear, she started digging 3 weeks before they closed on the house. Yes she gave quite a few seeds and plants. No way where they going into the garbage heap.

Are you sure you have an ARCHITECT working with you and not just a draftsman???? An architect should listen to you but he/she SHOULD have ideas - LOTS of ideas - about how to make your desires/dreams into a reality. On the other hand, a draftsman is someone who merely takes your plan and creates a clean, properly scaled drawing that can be used as a building guide. If your "architect" is expecting you to have all the ideas right down to the placement of closets, doors, and windows, he/she is NOT providing you with the architectural services that you are paying for. You need to fire them and get someone else. If you are actually working with a draftsman and want/expect to design your own home, please be aware that while it is not impossible for a non-architect to design a beautiful, functional home, it does take a lot of study, a lot of thought, and a lot of work to get there! Unfortunately, it looks to me like you're trying to START at the finish line...which is fine IF you have a good architect. Not so fine if you're correct in saying that the person you're working with just "does what YOU say." I'm sorry but the plan you have sketched above is simply not very good. Among other things, the way it is laid out forces you to waste far too much of your available square footage on hallways. You've sketched a masterbath with a garden tub (whirlpool tub) and no windows to look out of while enjoying a soak. You've got a powderroom opening directly off of the kitchen so that anytime the PR door is left open, you'll be staring at the toilet. You've also obviously given no thought whatsoever to what the exterior of the finished home would look like. And, given that in a previous post you mentioned that your husband wanted something a bit different and not just a plain box, the last thing I would think you would want to do would be to build a house with no style. Have you given any thought to what style you would like your home to be? Do you already own the lot where the house will be built? If so, which direction will the front door face? Where are the best views? How wide and how deep is your available building area? Do you have room for a side load garage or must it be front facing? Are you in a cold climate or a hot climate, a wet or dry region? Is the land essentially flat or sloped? All of these things should be taken into consideration when designing a home. If you don't already own your land, you're probably getting the cart before the horse anyway because, what if you design a house that is 85 feet wide and wind up with a lot that will only allow you to build 70 feet wide? Before beginning to design a home for you, an architect should know how many people will be living in your house and what kind of lifestyle do you have. Are you formal or informal? Do you entertain a lot or almost never? What do you like about your current home (even if you're renting) and what drive you nuts there? What are your MUST HAVES and NICE TO HAVES? How many bedrooms? How many baths? So you dream of a big whirlpool tub or a huge shower? Do you lust after his/hers vanities? How much closet space do you want/need? Do you want a formal living area or an informal family den? (or both???). So you want a formal dining room or would you never actually use one? Does your family gather in the kitchen while you cook? Do you need space in your kitchen for multiple cooks? Do you want the kitchen/living area to be open to each other or would you rather be able to hide the kitchen mess? Do you lust after a kitchen island? Will you be unhappy if your kitchen sink isn't under a window with a view? Do you need a large pantry? How many garage bays do you need? What size cars do you drive? Does your husband want space in the garage for a "shop." Do you need/want a mud room? Do you have pets and need a space for number of garage bays? attached/detached garage? porches? office? playroom? bonus rooms? Do you need/want a spacious laundry room or just a small spot for the washer/dryer? Is it important to you that certain rooms get lots of natural light? If so, which ones? Is it important that some rooms be tucked away where they'll be quiet even if the rest of the house is noisy? Do you and your husband tend to keep similar hours or is one of you a night owl while the other is up at the crack of dawn? Does your family all tend to gather together in one room or does everyone scatter to their own space? Is it important to you that your home impress visitors? Do you want soaring lofty ceilings or cozy nooks? Do you drawn toward traditional decor, country chintz, clean modern lines, Victorian froo-froo, or some other decorating style entirely? All of the above (plus more) is the kind of information that a competent architect would get from you so that he could help you put together a "program" that would then guide him in designing your home. If your person hasn't yet asked the questions above yet, RUN. Based on what I've seen you post thus far, I honestly think that at this point, you would be better off searching through all the plans that are available online and finding something there that you could live with. (I'm not saying that most online plans are great - and certainly they aren't "custom" - but it doesn't look to me like you're getting the kind of custom help that you have a right to expect from an architect. If nothing else, searching thru the online plans would help you to begin thinking about how you want your home to LIVE and what you do and don't like. After you study about a thousand online plans and try revising them to be closer to what you would like, you'll be much better prepared to start trying to sketch your own from scratch. Or, come back here with several that you "kind of like except for..." as well as answers to the questions I listed above, and perhaps some of the folks who frequent this site will be able to help you put together a workable plan. In the meantime, invest a couple of dollars for some graph paper and do your sketches on that so that various rooms will be at least close to "in scale."

I used to be much more cavalier about discarding roses but I've changed my ways. For one, it takes so long for bands to grow into ornamental plants with little rain. Besides, by now I should know better and be more discriminating in what I order. I know now that Maggie does not ring my chimes but she's staying. Charles Darwin, of which I have two, hardly lasts one day, but I hope with age that will improve. Mrs. Henry Morse is one of those early hybrid teas that take forever to put on growth so that might have been a mistake. I'll try fish solution to hurry her along. Mme. Antoine Mari's flowers are really too delicate for the heat, but there again I hope she'll toughen up with age. Sometimes I wish desperately that I could begin the whole process over again, amend the soil properly before planting, install drip watering right away and choose roses as though my life depended on it. Oh well.....