I'm guessing the first is some type of evening primrose. The second one is Malva moschata. If you don't deadhead it, every one of those seeds will germinate in your garden, in your grass, in the cracks in your walkway... :-( It's pretty when it's in bloom, but I don't find the flowers last long enough to keep it in my garden. I'm tearing all mine out and replacing them, next year, with the annual Lavatera. You may be right about the third one; it might also be a campanula.

These are my (educated??) guesses for your mystery perennials. #1 lunaria annua (money plant)biennial-can be invasive #2 astilbe #3 tradescantia (spiderwort) #4 lilium-asiatic? #5 Fragaria Red Ruby/Pink Panda (ornamental strawberry) #6 honeysuckle? #7 Clematis-Vyvyan Pennell? #8 Scilla hispanica (Spanish Bluebell)nice but invasive #9 aconitum (monkshead) ?? #10 don't know #11 lysimachia punctata (yellow flower)? #12 don't know #13 penstemon? #14 lilium asiatic #15 Allium christophii (ornamental onion)? #16 monarda #17 Hesperis matronalis (dame's rocket-invasive biennial) #18 same as #8 #19 Brunnera Jack Frost #20 Brunnera plain leaved form #21 same as #17 #22 Shrub weigela #23 and #24 alchemilla (lady's mantle) #25 lilium possibly trumpet or hybrid? #26 camassia (bulb) #27 goldenrod? probably a culltivated one

Definitely closer--the fruit of the mystery tree is round, kind of like a currant, not flattened like sugar bush...mystery tree is also almost certainly not drought tolerant, since the leaves are not at all resinous or fleshy. I have a feeling when you figure it out, I'm going to feel like a total idiot. Another potential clue...now that I think of it, since a huge bunch of these trees is interplanted with gingkos right by the Chinatown Cultural Center, I suspect that whatever it is, it's of Chinese origin. Next week I've got a job near there, I'll try to remember to bring my camera and post pictures.

Zeebee, having cleanup in the middle of food prep is my own horror, so I understand the problem. However, if you designated your cleanup essentially on the left wall/corner area, that would confine cleanup to the sink and area to its left. Prep would be from the sink on to its right. When I designed the kitchen in my new house, my two big priorities were plenty of work space and cleanup totally separated from it. Well, the kitchen isn't terribly large, but I have all that, prep on a spacious island and generous areas on both sides of the stove. It's great and I love it, but having had it I know I could be perfectly happy and do just as well with much less work space--just as long as it was well designed and I didn't have to push dirty dishes away to get at it. When I look at your current plan, I see an L counter that, properly set up, would work well for me. That 39" to the left of the stove is actually almost exactly the amount of space I work in daily here (the rest mostly just gets a drippy mixing bowl, busy spoon, or some such thing set on it so I have to wipe it down anyway). Regarding kitchen as hallway, I don't see it. What those doors do is create a view for the interior space, same as any large expanse of glass, plus provide the opportunity to open the house to the garden when you choose. I personally would want to be able to draw drapes or shutters, or whatever, when the weather's unappealing or you just want a cozily introverted space, and having learned from my mistakes would choose my window treatments as part of the design profess for my windows/doors. Your garden's going to be lovely. I'm a big gardener, but agree for sure, definitely no "cottage" garden for you. Been there, love it, but it is THE most challenging of all garden styles to keep really good looking all through the flowering season. I've spent years trying to get good enough to pull that trick off and had a lot of fun--but! At least I was in California. These days a temperate climate means 6 months of drear. Over the years, I've really come to love finely designed green gardens full of lovely foliage juxtaposed against handsome hardscape to provide structure and contrast. Occasional flowers throughout the seasons can provide variety but mainly just serve to set the main feature off. A garden like that can be gorgeous in all seasons, with and without floral accents, and when well designed also be the easiest to care for of all. The foliage also softens all the masonry and other construction around and adds privacy. It can also serve as a home for birds. We really enjoy watching the birds from our windows, and my gardens now will always be designed to attract them. In any case, beauty's a function of good design. It truly doesn't have to be heavy maintenance at all. In your case, I think you owe it to yourselves to create a beautiful view for your home so you can enjoy it both at the kitchen/dining level and from above. :)