Kayan, the picture of the raised planters gives me a good idea of the spaces you have to work with. Based on the above posts, I suggest making a list of all the different plants (veges, flowers, perennials) that you are considering based on preferences for flower/bloom color, food, etc. Make columns to list them by type: ornamental shrubs, flower (annuals like petunias, etc.),vining (climbing roses, jasmine, climbing veges like cucumber, peas, beans). Make a column for perennial (year around) vs. annual, height x width (how much room they need as they mature), by color if thats important, by food type and then by season, i.e. winter veges vs. summer.Make sure they all grow in your USDA Plant Zone. The plants will be your major elements so arranging them will be the most important and since there is alot of variety, the important thing would be to not allow it to get messy or unplanned. These types of gardens tend to look hodge-podge, cluttered and wild. Some people like this 'look' and call it 'informal' or cottage style. The ones you see in picture books are well planned and well maintained, so knowing how things grow is very important before planting. Decide on the structure of the space formal vs. informal. Formal with either straight lines or based on circular, symetrical shapes can be very space efficient which is a plus in a small space like yours. I like the bird bath focal point because its simple. I have your yard designed in my mind as I'm writing this, funny, if you were a client, I would just sketch it out in front of you. Paths and flooring could use those bricks you mentioned, spaced about 6' apart neatly though with creeping Thyme planted in between (grow from seed). Plant vining plants that need support or a trellis along the fence with a few perennials to break them up like dwarf Pomegranite or Butterfly bush (Buddelia) I would have a 3 foot path around the perimeter to access the vines on one side and the veges, flowers on the other which would be in raised beds. You can get creative with the raised containers and not make them so boring with squares and rectangles. Maybe make them into a 'cross' which would be two elongated rectanles that intersect in the middle. then in this center you could place a glazing globe,bird bath, sundial, etc. Next step is to draw the space out to scale and start sketching some ideas on paper or just use a white board, chalk board, etc. but try to do it to scale since you have a small space, scale is important when considering the width of the plants. Hope that helps get you going where you want to go. P.S. Use caution with Lady Banks Rose or Bouganvillea as they will get overgrown and overwhelm the space. Here is a link that might be useful: garden design ideas that give more meaning than simply the style of a garden

I second the suggestion for the dwarf nandinas - we have them in our south-facing front flower bed completely under the eave of the house, so they get next to no direct sunlight (and barely any water now that they are established) and are thriving. They're evergreen in our area and stay small (and are almost always available at Lowe's in the smaller sizes which are less expensive than the big ones. If you can stalk Lowe's and HD, they will clearance a lot of those types of things at the end of the season before they bring in the Christmas trees, so you can get a deal but I doubt you want to wait that long with the cat issues ... the skewers in your photo made me laugh - I can tell the situation is getting desperate!). You can see two dwarf nandinas directly in front of our windows in this picture - they're in the shade so look dark but in person they are kind of lime green and bright. I think nandinas alone might be kind of boring, but it depends on how "into" gardening you want to get as to how elaborate you might want to be. This first year as you wait for your shrubs to grow, you might want to plant some inexpensive annuals to fill in (coleus is a good one for shade and is pretty easy to grow from seed, although I've always done my seeds indoors in the early spring.) Golden moneywort is one of my favorite creeping perennial groundcovers, you don't need too many plants to get started and it will fill in and keep weeds down for you and it can get a little ratty in the winter but does stick around to some extent, so it's semi-evergreen. I'd add some seasonal foliage or flower interest with heucheras or variegated hostas. All those are in this picture with the hydrangea (which is definitely a thirsty beast!) I'd definitely add bulbs like daffodils that will bloom when there are no leaves on the tree. Lots of things can be divided from other gardens - do you know any gardeners in your neighborhood or do you walk your 'hood where you could maybe ask a gardening neighbor? If you end up wanting to go the liriope route (I do actually like monkey grass in a landscape, at my old house it edged all my beds, but it needs to be divided every few years to keep from taking over and it is physically hard to divide) for goodness' sakes don't buy any. Send me a message and you can bring your shovel to my house. I also would be able to share daffodils next spring - I'm not entirely sure where they all are this time of year. My hostas are still small and young (divisions from friends, all!) so I can't divide those yet, but I might have some other things to share if I walk around and look. Oh! And get some cat repellent. We had that problem when we moved into our new house about 12 years ago, with cats using our raised planter beds as a toilet, and I went to TLC for cat repellent - probably any nursery will have something like it. The kind I used smelled strongly like lemons and was a granule that came in a milk carton style container. You'd just shake it out over the soil and reapply every time it rained, and after a while the cats got the message. I dug out all the top 8 inches of contaminated soil and replaced it, but I am a germaphobe who tends to garden while gloveless. Then I planted new stuff and it filled in and the cats didn't come back.

About 4 years ago, we remodeled our house because we needed more space for us and our three kids. We moved into a 2 bedroom townhouse for over 7 months and the whole experience ended up being very liberating. I worked on a principle of thirds: one third of the stuff we needed went with us to the townhouse, one third was packed away in a POD, and the remaining third was either sold, donated, or given away. Then when we moved back, suddenly our house felt so spacious and empty even though we only added about 500 additional square feet. As I went through the boxes in the POD, so much of the stuff we'd collected no longer appealed to me and to this day they remain packed--most were nic-nacs given to us as gifts from family. I know I'll never put them up, at the same time it doesn't feel quite right to just give it to charity. I've thought several times about tring to resell on eBay as I don't think Craigslist is a good place to sell off collections, though I've found it a great place to resell furniture, electronics, and kid stuff. Nowadays, I'd say most of the clutter comes from the kids. We have a new Guitar Hero music set cluttering up my family room. Sigh.... and I just got it arranged the way I wanted it.... but they do enjoy it.

These doggie faces who have passed.....Sob! It's so sweet to hear from you all and to hear stories of your kids. I hope that there is a heaven and that we will see them all again. My late Dad, who died on Valentine's Day 2007, was a huge dog lover, and we had Brittanys growing up, but just one at a time that he trained and bird hunted with. Dad was at home under hospice care, sitting in his recliner in their living room. Mum and I were sitting on the sofa. Dad looked up at the ceiling, and said with this look of wonder on his face, 'They have DOGS up there!' Dad was not religious, and the only time he went to church was for a wedding or funeral, so Mum and I were shocked. Hospice had told us that he might say odd things as he neared the end, but when we heard that, we knew he'd be OK. The last picture that I have of Dad is of him laying on a hospital bed in their guest room, with his Brittany, Beau, laying on top of him, cuddling. That's the way a dog lover should spend his last days.