I use both methods, depending on the client and whether they want to pay for a separate design or not. What I do find helpful if just winging it, is to really know your sun/shade exposure, sizes of mature plants, and work with a general scheme that has some overall organizing principle. As an example, I just went into a local specialty nursery and went wild buying plants for a new back yard remodel in the Oakland Hills of northern California. I basically knew that I wanted to play off some existing pale green timber bamboo trunks against an ochre stained concrete retaining wall, and that the client wanted to use tropicals and more color for this area, but also really liked foliage texture and color. Other key ingredients to work around included using a maroon colored Ensete ventricosum Maurellii as an accent plant, a very large specimen New Zealand Tree Fern as another focal point, and a mature existing Windmill Palm/Trachycarpus fortunei. I knew I only had small areas of full sun, and mostly shaded raised beds, and wanted to give a lush, tropical look as seen from inside the house. The client also wanted flowers to attract hummingbirds and butterflies. I also thought I wanted to emphasize mid fall into winter blooms, with lots of orange and purple accents, as the garden is to be installed in the next couple of weeks, and needs to look good for a garden tour on October 20th. With that in mind, I selected some foliage plants such as the gorgeous Hedychium greenei with purple stems and underside of leaves and orange flowers blooming now, and some deep green with even deeper purple underside of leaves Clerodendron quadroliculare to play off the maroon of the banana, and situated them above eye level so that the leaf undersides would feature prominently. I also added understory plantings with a purple foliage theme such as Oxalis spiralis vulcanicola Burgundy and Billbergia 'Bill', along with purple tinged foliage of the compact bushy Euphorbia Jade Dragon to complete the purple element. I also knew that I wanted a good amount of orange foliage and blooms, and could not resist the fall foliage color of a Poncirius trifoliata Flying Dragon as a complement to the Ensete, with a mass planting of a dwarf shrubby Coprosma Evening Glow to pick up this color, and further another Oxalis, O. s. v. Sunset Velvet to trail over walls as well. The orange flowers will come from several Abutilons such as A. megapotamica Marianne and A. m. Halo as well as the gorgeous Abutilon Victor Reiter. Clumps of a narrow leafed compact form of Clivia miniata will also star as mass ground cover below the Tree Fern. Yellow accents for shade to brighten up the darker corners will rely on a Alpinia zerumbet variegata, the yellow star like flowers of the Oxalis spiralis, and the variegated yellow stripes of bromeliads such as Neoregelia Bossa Nova. Greens to complement the bamboo trunks will mostly feature grassy foliage clumps of Dianella intermedia, and various Restios such as Elegia capensis, some slightly stiffer upright clumping Restio tetraphyllus with beautiful chartreuse foliage, and an accent Elegia fistula with very interesting seed heads. Clumps of the Chinese Banana, Musella lasiocarpa will also serve as understory to the taller growing Ensete, mirroring the form of the taller, while also giving some screening of mechanical equipment, and the added bonus of the bright yellow artichoke like flower as summer accents. Some other accent plants to carry the maroon theme beyond the Ensete into sunnier parts of the garden at the raised patio beyond will include the tropical Ricinus communis New Zealand Purple with the deep purple foliage and rosy red flowers, and the tropical vining Purple Wings vine, Dalechampia dioscoreifolia to cover a rear fence. A Grevillea Robyn Gordon for flashes of red and entice the hummingbirds year round will combine with our native Zaushneria also in fall bloom with scarlet flowers and soft gray foliage. In late winter, the Pincushion Protea, Leucospermum cordifolium Yellow Bird will provide yellow accents, and play off the deep purple blooms of the tree like Tibouchina urvilleana. Clumps of the large soft shrubby Salvia splendens Van Houttei are also massed here and there to give a burgundy red tint to carry the red/purple theme throughout the garden. I was tempted to go in several different directions while I was shopping at the nursery, but had to remind myself that I only had so much room to plant, and that each plant had to fit into the color and texture theme that was established by the existing timber bamboo and Red Abyssinian Banana. I must admit it is a pleasure to be able to design a garden for mid fall into winter that will be showy and colorful, and not have to wait until spring for such impact, but it does mean that one has to have a working familiarity with what works with our local climate, and can be depended upon for year round impact without looking ratty in winter. I probably could have done this all in plan as well, but the client always seems to respond better when I just show up with the proposed plants and start placing them in the garden. I suppose it also allows him more input, as we debate the locations and combinations, and end up tweaking my ideas in response to his suggestions. We have enough practice at this by now to be able to persuade him to locate plants with the proper sun/shade orientation and allow for mature sizes. I try to pay attention to his requests to locate certain plants where he insists he wants them, and come up with suggestions that are similar when the sun/shade or size doesn't work for his request. It does force me to put on my thinking cap and be able to suggest similar alternatives that will work. So could you say this is both careful planning and making it up as you go? To me, it certainly seems to combine a bit of both, or would you call it semi restrained anarchy? With all that in mind

The important parts of this article can also apply to "DEAR DEER". We have the largest population of deer in the state of Wisconsin I think! Everybody (like gardeners) who is not in the "know and of course the hunters think that they are adorable when young and beautiful and majastic when grown". And that is why I have ugly deer fencing and posts around all of my gardens...I got up one morning prior to the fencing and found that those 4 legged monsters had destroyed at least a dozen of my hostas. Neighbors do think that I am crazy for gardening in the woods and country...but I will prevail!! Vicki

Florantha, I have orange walls. We were criticizing the colors not because of what's stylish but because of the exact shades used. That particular yellow is very aggressive and the orange stripes going in two directions are a bit day glo. I think the orange fabric could be made to work with the right yellow on the wall. As it is, I find the combination, at least as it shows in the picture, to be painful (As in, ouch! my eyes!). They also don't go with the counter or the floor. The paint and homemade curtains both look fresh and clean, leading to the assumption that the current residents put them in, so the choice of them leads us back to the discussion about what it takes to design a kitchen. And I contend, as I have through this all, that it's little touches like choosing the right paint color, not granite counters. MV, It's interesting about the "other" kitchens you mention. I have my own big stack of (pre-GW/FKB) kitchen magazines. And while I can't live on a steady diet of Architectural Digest, I pick it up every now and then. I love looking at home and kitchen design, and am as likely to look at it in the background of a personality profile as in a house photo, because then you see real people houses. But I wouldn't want to live in most of them! I love thinking about how life would be in an MCM masterpiece, or the arboreal house with the canopy style copper roof. I love looking at them and thinking about how the way the house works will interact with the way the people live their lives. But I'm honest with myself and know that I want more function than one of those shiny Italian curvopoli where it's more important that the ladle and can opener match the kitchen design than work well, and that I'm too prone to clutter to do justice to an MCM. Kmsparty, I can definitely attest to the more cooking in a more convenient kitchen thing. I cooked less and less in the old kitchen because it was so awful. Now cooking is so convenient and pleasant in my not-quite-finished new kitchen that I'm actually cooking too much!

Haven't really subscribed to mags for years, but I have bought a number at check-out counter in the past two years, primarily the BHG bath-kitchen ones, and Renovation Style, and one called "Kitchen Trends." Often began reading them while waiting for DH in a store. Also bought the Consumer Reports mag at newstand, without paging through it. I like BH&G for its down-to-earth attitude, its placidity with paint and DIY. Triangulating between the posh mags and House Beautiful and the plebian ones helps me see the field better. I did a lot of reading of library copies of Kitchens and Baths and of kitchen remodel guidebooks. We have a fabulous local library system. Sometimes I go spend a couple hours in library reading latest copies of all those titles that others mention above. Our MPR public radio station sponsorships bring us Minnesota Monthly and its occasional companion Midwest Home, which covers the region's high end building industry primarily. This publication is helpful for showing what are the upcoming open houses, shows, etc. and what are the posh kitchens like, but it is also aimed well above my family's interests and budget and has some downright dumb designs in it sometimes. Portions are online--see link. I do know that a number of helpful images at beginning of project came from this mag--sometimes just a color scheme or a shade or something. Also like reading the pieces put out by local industries--the local co. tile mag, the Parade of Homes promos, etc. Thanks for leads to other online mags. I love to browse. Here is a link that might be useful: Midwest Home Magazine