Campanula, I have 2 gardens. One is urban, in Cambridge (MA), where the commuter trains go by all day strewing their diesel fumes, and I grow only shrubs and 1 rose (Tiffany, put in about 25 years ago); and the other, more important one is in Rhode Island near the sea, where I recently built a fenced (against deer) potager with vegetables and with climbing roses on the 8 ft. posts. As the tiny baby band-size roses grow, the veggies will be mostly phased out to make room for the roses plus a central seating area. Should be in another 3-4 years. The seaside zone is a little less cold in winter, making it the edge of zone 7, for plant survival purposes. Last spring I visited northern California to see and smell the roses blooming there (I wanted to choose wonderful scents) before I ordered my choices by mail. (Also met some of those wonderful Calif. Gardenweb forum members and rose-lovers on that trip.) Because I'm at the low-temp edge of zone 7 there, I will be heavily mulching those babies at the end of autumn. And because my far view includes the ever-changing blues of the ocean, I chose rose colors of white, cream, pale yellow and pale apricot. All climbers, all hypothetically good to zone 6b. THAT was a challenge. We'll see how well this works, next June. Carol

If you want a cottage style garden clumps are better than lines, rigid lines of plants are more suited to formal or modern styles. Planting groups of three or more usually gives greater visual impact, most designers recommend odd numbered groupings. Larger plants can be placed singly, especially if space is limited. You might find it helpful to drive around your area to look for gardens you like, see what does well and so on. There are lots of good websites for gathering inspirational pictures for your own garden, and there is probably a local Master Gardeners group that should have useful information for you. Our local Master Gardeners have a website that I consult regularly. You might want to measure your space and draw up a plan. Consider the mature size of the plants you want and make sure that you won't have to worry about removing or severely pruning them in the future. It's hard to judge from one picture, but it seems to me that your space is limited enough that just using one tree as the focal point and designing around it might be the best way to go. Find your specimen plant(s), install the picket fence, do some border beds, and you might be set. I always like to print out some graph paper and play with different designs that way, it's a lot easier to erase and redraw a line than it is to dig up and move a flower bed. Using a hose or some flour to outline the beds you imagine can also be helpful. Also, I would want to put something taller than a steppable in front of your porch, something that could connect the tall porch to the rest of the landscape. Research and planning isn't as fun as getting your hands dirty, but in the long run it can give you a nice garden faster than trail and error. If you are impatient to get some color going you might want to start with potted plants, that's what I've been doing in the areas I plan on renovating in the future but want to have flowers in right now. Good luck! Post pictures to keep us updated on your progress, please!

I agree that your location is better for sun than shade perennials. If you are getting "bright direct sun from noon until sunset", that could be more than 8 hours in midsummer, and gardening books define full sun as 6 or more hours of direct sun. (Shade plants will be "stressed out" by hours of hot afternoon sun.) In addition to the good choices above, I recommend native plants in the legume family, such as Baptisia australis (Blue false indigo), and Senna marilandica (yellow flowers, foliage similar to locust tree). Perennial legumes often do well in sunny locations with nutrient poor soil, because of their ability to fix nitrogen. Baptisia and Senna look their best if given some space to fill in (3 feet for Baptisia, 2-2.5 feet for Senna).

I'm sorry to say, but I can tell you right now that a number of the plants you brought are not winter hardy in zone 6. Rosemary, the Winston Churchill fuchsia, Mexican sage, Mexican petunia, heliotrope, & lantana all will not survive winters where you are now. Any plant that's in a container outside can also be dropped by 2 -3 zones, depending on where the pot is, size of containers, etc. Please be aware that some of the plants you have in containers that would normally make it through a West Virginia winter might not while in containers. The roses will be more liable to freeze & die in the pots too. The ground, although cold & frozen winter, always retains some residual warmth & is far safer than plants in pots. Is there any place that you can store your plants for now to prevent freezes? Even with such a condition, plants like lantana will not survive prolonged cold, let alone any freezing. My suggestion would be to find a cool greenhouse, not a warm one, where plants could overwinter without danger of being killed. A cool greenhouse is one where night temperatures are kept around 45 F so in your area, that would mean some source of warmth during cold winter days & nights. You just don't want it too warm so that would stimulate growth. It's really hard to move from a warmer zone to one where many of your beloved plants can't grow. I did that & after 14 years in my cold 'hell', moved back to warmer climes & enjoying it no end.