Maybe not unusual enough, but these were hits with my great niece when she was younger. We just named things as we came upon them. I used to hide some clay animals amongst the veg & fruits, so we've played hide & seek with them over the years. Then she began calling an area the kitten bed or the hippo garden. I brought them to the backyard for this year, but next year, I'm putting the animals back to the veg. garden where one animal per bed so that we'll refer back to the animal residing in that space where I want my son or hubby to go pick lettuce or pull some onions for dinner. Much easier for the ungardeners to find what is needed. Strawberry Garden - kept a deep crock 1/2 buried in the bed & filled with clean water during the ripe berry season for easy dipping clean before eating. She wanted whipped cream at first, but I told her these berries were best dipped in water. After tasting them she agreed. Fairy Garden - planted miniature plants in a pot just for her along with some fairy toys to keep it interesting. Pizza Garden - of herbs & tomatoes for topping on pizza. She expected to see pizza (bread dough & cheese) and I found an article that had the plants in the shape of pizza wedges, but we didn't have space to plant them that way. We did pick the herbs for pizza, but the tomatoes weren't ripe when she visited and she wisely didn't want a green tomato on pizza.

"Asparagus is at the top of my list" Ok, gus is normally given a bed/dedicated area of its own away from the rest of the crops. It is a perennial crop and doesn't tolerate competition or disturbance once established (takes about 3 years) and has different nutrient and water needs than some other crops. So for best results find it its own little corner of the world to grow and plan to use crowns rather than seed. " I would like to create enough crops to last an entire year for 3 people." So are you planning on learning food canning or just growing produce for the freezer? I ask because canning requires a bit different planting plans and because with that goal you will likely need a bigger garden than you have planned. "The location I am looking at using is right on the edge of a wooded area but where there is sun light. There are multiple pine trees in the surrounding area but a large open view for sunlight." Have you been able to determine exactly how many hours of direct sunlight this area will get. When a clearing is surround by trees the hours of actual sun exposure is usually limited. Also keep in mind that the sun's relative position to those trees and your garden moves daily. So the sun exposure you are getting right now is not the same as it will be a month or two or three from now. " I do not know if the soil would be good for vegetables." That means getting a soil test done. Contact your local county extension office for how to do that. " I do not know if the soil would be good for vegetables." Incline gardening has some unique challenges - gravity effects on water, etc. so if any leveling can be done it will be worth the work. "I am not sure if that fertilizer would bleed in to my garden soil or not. We also have an airplane that swoops over the cornfield across the road spraying chemicals" Then you are going to need to talk to them and investigate exactly what is being used and when. Chemical drift and soil run-off are real problems for gardeners so you need to know exactly what you will be dealing with up front so you can prepare for it. Hope this is some help. Dave

Thanks for the further suggestions. There is a lot more sun on the right end. Lilies do well. I think delphiniums would be fine there. On the shady left, I just had to cut down an overhanging branch due to the trunk cracking in a heavy snow, that may make the left end more sunny than it has been before. Hopefully my gold hostas will not get fried. I’m thinking about a monkshood in the shadier end too. I think the path idea, though it appeals to me, will be dependent on whether I can get at least 2 of the bushes behind it dug out. Though I love the way it looks, I can’t keep frosted Brunnera alive. I was slowly getting some to expand in the backyard, but the lack of snow cover seems to have done them in too. They would be up by now if they were alive. A plain green one in another bed is up. One silvery plant that came to mind is pulmonaria. That does well in one bed around a tree (same location where the silver Brunnera croaked). I have one I got in trade (so don’t know that name) that is almost all silver, with just a fine green edge, rather than spotted. Since I have not done much planting around the gate location recently, I don’t know how the drainage compares to the adjacent hosta bed at the left, which is at the base of a very slight slope. Since I have a lot of gold and purple, the easy route would be to just use Hakonechloa macra 'Aureola’, since I already know I can grow that. Though where I have it now gets a lot of sun, conditions for both areas would be comparable. At least for now, I can’t extend the stepping stones. It will be a while before I can kneel well. It was a marathon of kneeling to prepare the base, paver base, etc., and lay the stones 2 years ago. The gate color I’m keeping. I matched the original paint, which a friend told me was a very traditional shade for garden fence in France where this came from. I have an outdoor metal/wood bench on the patio which I will paint to match. It also goes well with my house trim.

The overall impression is of a miniature garden. A stiffly formal miniature garden, at that. Small plants, small pots, tiny garden ornaments. ? One very large, very attractive pot will have far more impact than a number of tiny pots. Don't be afraid to become a little more rambunctious with the plantings in the gravel area. Will those little flowering poufs grow larger? Since you have pavers to walk on, the gravel is open to more planting, no? Adding larger plants placed closely around the rectangle, about double the height and breadth of the existing plants, would continue the formality of your plan but give it a lift. Or fill the whole gravel area with plants, whether formally placed, or in drifts. I get a sense of "perimeter-itis" with the covered bench appearing to be jammed into the corner -- or at least it seems so in this photo. Place it where it will appear more approachable, out from the corner, at an angle. Maybe get a plant to climb up the side of it? Overall the garden is lacking in height, unless you have unseen "borrowed" tree canopy outside the walls. A judiciously placed small tree, or a shrub pruned to simulate a small tree could cozy-up the exposed feeling of the garden. This is a more exuberant version of a small patio garden: