Hello Kal, Sometimes I use Punch to set up building masses, but most designing I do by hand. Paper and pencil are my best friends. (Trace paper, too, and a million erasers). Disregarding what you have read in the past, do you think straight lines are formal? I personally don't. Not intrinsically, at the very least. They can be used to create very formal designs, yes, but they don't necessarily equate into a formal design. In your space, for example, the patio won't be the only thing in the space, and thus can be tempered by other elements to create the look or aesthetic that you want. The types of plants you choose, and/or their arrangement and/or placement can alter the look of the patio by visually breaking up the edges or by accentuating them. Even within the patio, the colour combinations, textures, patterns, scale of the pavers, all of these have an effect on the overall feeling. I personally would say that a rectilinear patio would suit the space better, given its size. With a curvy patio, you might have to compromise on patio area to accommodate curves. The leftover space between the patio and fence may be too narrow at spots to plant with anything significant. There's a lot to consider when you're designing a space, which is good when you're still in the planning stage and it's easier to change things around. I don't want to plan the space for you, since you are the one who really knows what you want to achieve. But I will try, and hopefully with the help of others on the forum, to push you to explore other opportunities or ideas that you usually wouldn't have. - Audric

This is the organic Gardening thread! Some interesting points have been expressed in the thread. One of the key organic principles is replenishment; of course referring to nutrients and organic matter. The use of cover crops, rotations, intercropping, green manures, recycling refuse and manure to name a few, fill the replenishment options. That certainly does not preclude the organic amendments for deficient nutrients or adjustment of pH. The OP specifically poised the rotation topic. It compels me to ask of those who plant the same plants in the same location, "What do you proclaim to be the cause of pests and disease?" If a plant(s) succumbs to a pest or disease in that location from year to year, do you not think that the origin might be the soil? Rotation is primarily directed at avoidance of direct exposure to pests and disease that exist in the soil. While there is also truth in healthy soil reducing the impact of pests and diseases, moving the host plant to a fresh location reduces the incidence. The continuos presence of the host (as mentioned by Peter) continues the cyles of pests and disease without interruption. By rotating crops you insert a non-host species or one that is antagonistic to that pest or disease (i.e. - marigolds for nematodes). Diversity of planting is also an enhancement, especially for pests and disease. The availability of nutrients is also a factor in the growth rate of the plants; a plant growing too fast or slow suffers stresses which are invitation to pests and diseases. Being in a zone 5 and growing many long season heirlooms I am compelled to start most for transplanting. Timing the starts attempts to have a strong plant able to adapt easily when placed within the suitable growing conditions. Transplants also permit me to properly prepare the beds. For me rotation means having a growing plant or crop in the soil 70-80% of the year. A fall green manure and/or cover crop is part of the plan. Timing of fall sowing may require inter-seeding to permit suitable germination and growth before first frost. Turning under the spring growth prior to transplanting adds nutrients and organic matter which must be given 2-3 weeks for initial decomposition; so not to starve the transplants of nitrogen. Rotation does have a part in the small and medium scale. For my two distance-separated plots totalling nearly 10,000 square feet it is simple to rotate plantings by simply leapfrogging beds. My five year rotation plan shifts each wide (3 feet) bed about 21 feet (including the paths). For nutrient replentishment I strictly limit amendments to compost, composted manure (cattle/horse) and green manure. My soil is tested every three years for comparison. My nutrient management plan is based on improvement versus maintenance. My primary plot is sand which has produced for nearly 40 years. A new plot of silt-loam on a beef farm has been in production for me over five years. My only bad year was 2009 due to very brief summer weather and only about 30% sunny days. I'm sticking to my rotation plan.

IMHO, this type of planting that the OP shows in the original post, is somewhat of a reversal to mass landscaping that was done about 40-50 years ago by builders in the "newly developed suburbs" Hubby and I bought a home 28 years ago, in a well developed, but small development whose homes where already about 25-30 years old. Houses where built in the old fashioned design of remove just enough trees to build the house and leave plenty of land for each home. Houses have 1 acre of land, lots of trees around it, most with quite large land frontage etc. It's when the landscapers came in that the disasters where created and it was with every home in the development. Nothing was appropriately planted, tress where shrubs should be and trees that would grow to be huge disasters in their planted locations where placed all over the place and at the foundation of houses. When we bought our home, my hubby thought I was crazy. the house was wonderful, the land was more than an acre to have. Beautiful frontage, very long and large driveway that holds more than 8 cars, and surrounded by beautiful woods and an already chain link fenced in back yard for the 2 year old to play in and added to all that, it was a dead end road and we where the next to last house on the street. It was the landscaping that was the total disaster. I kept telling hubby, don't worry about that part. It will take several years to repair the disaster, but I could do it, I grew up on a summer flower farm. It's been a daunting task over the past 38 years but this is what was and has been done. The front of the house was covered with arbovite trees, all leaning on the front of both sides of the front stairs. One side completely covered the picture window so that no light could come in. 4 weeks after moving in, we cut the trees down to the ground. In the fall we dug out all the crappy soil, filled with fresh loam, peat, etc. In the spring I got to work on that first bed. Luckily the 2 blue hydrangeas from the market where hardy to this area and they have come back every year, huge and more beautiful every year. Added to the planting with my potted herb garden and the old plastic birdbath that won't hold water but works beautifully as a container planter. and of course other containers end up arriving there every year Opposite the picture window, smack in the middle of the front yard, 2 beautiful Colorado Blue Spruce where planted. They looked beautiful and where as healthy as could be. On the other hand, I knew what the future held for them and it wasn't something I wanted in the front yard, especailly when they where already approaching 7 feet tall. So at Christmas time, we cut those down and gave them as gifts to 2 very close friends for Xmas trees. The following spring, this bed was dug out, leaving the very low remains of the spruce stumps on either end of the bed It gets filled with lots of annuals and has perennials in it as well. lupine under the hanging poles on either side dianthus firewitch on either side of the birdbath in the center under the arbor The trench with bark mulch that you can see in the pics of the flower bed in the center of the front yard, had a 3-4 foot hedge in it. No idea why, but that was all cut down to the ground and I fill the area with pots of plants. To the left of the center bed, way in the front on the left side, you can barely see what was left of a rhodie. It was 8 feet tall when we moved in. I had hubby cut it way down to about 2 feet. You should have seen his face as he kept saying he was killing it. Of course we all know better than that, rhodies do quite well with even severe cutting. Finally, last year I had my fill of it being in the way. It was cut to the ground and I'm keeping it from growing back. The opposite side of the front stairs at the foundation had the same arbovite trees growing that where huge as well. We cut those down the first few weeks that we lived here, but I never got to do anything with a bed there. Oh, the small stump is all that remains of another rhodie that was planted there. 10 feet tall when we moved in. Cut down to 2 feet and kept there till this new garden bed was dug. The kids took it down to the ground because it would block the view of the new bed. I had no complaints as the beat me to the punch in cutting it down to the ground. I guess, what I'm showing and trying to say is what is shown in the OP first pic is, what I would call, a reversal of fortune. I return to some really dumb and stupid design plantings that existed 30 years ago. No thought in what is being planted, no idea of size that trees and shrubs will grow and the bark mulch mounded is the perfect ingredient to kill what they planted. Fran Almost 8 years ago, when my mother passed away, my daughters friends came in and dug the bed for me, filled it with fresh loam and garden soil and covered it with bark mulch, while we where at my mother's funeral. They knew I would be digging out my mother's perennials from her apartment garden and they created a perfect location to put them in. All I had to do was go get them and bring them home, dig the holes and put them in. I've kept it as her memorial garden and everything that grows in it where either her perennials, annuals from seeds of hers that she had and plants that she wanted to get and still hadn't gotten. That fenced in back yard, the one with the chain link fence, no longer has young children in it. Both have long grown up, 25 and 30. So it is used to hold all my wintersown containers through the winter and until they are planted. The fence itself gets filled with at least 50 different kinds of morning glory plants.

I have both. I started out wanting a 30" gas cooktop (Bluestar) and a 15" induction hob. I ended up with a 30" Miele induction cooktop and a 15" gas wok burner (Miele). I rarely use the Wok burner. I came from a 48" Dacor Rangetop and the Miele blows it away in terms of performance. I did not want a Rangetop because I have small kids around and knobs are fun! For my cooking style, an induction cooktop is preferred. I make everything from scratch. I also use pressure cookers. Making a bone broth using a pressure cooker on Induction is just wonderful! I make a lot of Asian cuisine which has onion bases and before induction, there was very little I could do to prevent burning of the onion paste/curry. With induction, I don't burn the curry anymore. I don't fry foods often but had a hankering for fried chicken last weekend. I made this easily with the induction cooktop. I make a lot of my food from scratch because friends and family have a lot of food allergies so when they come over, they can eat easily. For instance, the fried chicken was gluten free using rice flour and potato starch. A lot of people report how easy it is to cook rice on the induction stove, I don't cook rice on the stove since I prefer the rice cooker for plain rice but when I make things like paella and other mixed rice dishes, the induction cooktop allows me to manage the temperature to a very fine degree. I also use a flat bottom wok on induction now. When I want to use the round bottom induction wok, there is an adapter that I can use on Induction. I also use the round bottom on the Gas Wok hob but rarely any more. As another point, I work in IT and have used Windows Machines for over 30years. I started with DOS based machines. I never thought I would be a Mac fan at all. I resisted it and finally purchased one in 2015. I have not looked back. There is a tool for everyone and you can get what works for you. I try to base my decisions on accurate information and my personal experience. I would ask that you go to showrooms where they have induction cooktops available for testing and make a meal that you would normally make at home. This was the best way to get me to change my configuration. When I went to the show room, I made Pasta and sauce that I make on weeknights. It was so easy to do with induction. I also like that I don't set my kitchen towels aflame anymore:-) One of the points people bring up is the need for new cookware. I never realized it but all my cookware was induction capable from the beginning. I had mainly Demeyere, All Clad, Le Creuset and Cast Iron pans. Good luck!