Peter- Wow. Sounds like you're getting into my head. Had some questions a while back about whether people only tended/tilled their rows, or tended/tilled their entire garden. I was thinking that it could be more cost/labor effective if you only tended rows year after year and let the aisles kind of be... with some sort of cover crop. Sounds like it can be done. I'm very interested in that. Is the white clover you mention, "dutch white clover"? When it creeps, will I be able to bring it under control when I till as normal for my fall/winter garden, and my spring/summer garden, or will I need to do additional spading/ edging of some sort then, and throughout the growing season? Can I plant it now, along with my winter garden? The book sounds interesting. I'm going to pick up a copy. Thanks for the clarification on the fact that, yes, I can grow hairy vetch and cereal rye now and still have organic matter to till in, in the early spring. Great news for me. I'm being thick headed here, but I'm still not understanding how the cereal rye affects seeds/seedlings. You say "cereal rye will suppress small seeded vegetables, but will not kill healthy transplants". Do you mean that ANY healthy transplant will not be harmed, and that only small seeds sown in place may have issues? Or do you mean by "small seeded vegetables", even transplants that are grown from small seeds can be affected? No till eh? I might be interested and your experiment suggestion is certainly something I'd be interested in trying. Do you think that even with the poor soil conditions that I have currently, it would be worth experimenting with that right now? Or, as I'm thinking maybe better to bring up my organic matter by tilling in pine bark fines, bring up my potassium levels with sulfate of potash (currently very low), add alfalfa meal to supply nitrogen needs, plant the garden, mulch with either shredded leaves or straw or hay.... Then next season try the no till part of the equation? Frankly, I'm just a little unsure about how the whole no till thing is going to work for me. Don't know a whole lot about it, but kind of thinking it might be better to do "next phase" because my soil is so poor. Please feel free to argue this to me, offer suggestions for no till on poor soil conditions viability. Do you (or anyone reading this) have a good source for cover crop seed? I was going to purchase from Johnny's selected seeds, but they are out of some of the varieties I was interested in.

Here's my results so far: Past 2 years been challenging but the palms that pulled through, Washingtonia filifera/ robusta ( with robusta getting defiolated last winter & this winter) Chamaerhops both green & blue perfect despite cerifera slight damage first winter. Pindos slight damage first year, nothing so far just on 1 recent transplant last year. Phoenix canary's 1st year defiolated this year doing good. Brahea edulis slight damage both years but better this year(strong palm for zone 8b) Sabal pumos slight damage. Trithrinax campestris 2 palm plant 1 had spear pull ( fully recovered & doing fine this winter) nannorrhops arabica ( Iranian silver) slight damage both winters ( seems very promising) planted out at a 1 gal. Trachycarpus fortunei slight damage 1st year none this winter. Sabal blackburniana, this 1 didn't get a fare chance I move it before last winter hit & never recovered but still alive I can't access this 1 properly. Phoenix theophrastii defiolated & spear pull 1st year ( fully recovered) this winter has some damage, canariensis seem a bit hardier but to early to till, planted theophrastii out at a 5 gal. Ok the ones that didn't make it: Queen Palm defiolated 1st year & didn't recover by next winter, didn't make it. Trithrinax brasiliensis planted out at a 15 gal. Died 1st winter( pretty surprised with this 1, but might try again) Acoelorrhaphe wrightii died 1st winter. livistona nitida died 1st winter. Livistona's might not make it up here don't seem to take much cold but I still want to try a few more & try nitida again. 1st winter we had a hand full of low & mid 20's with are lowest being 19*f two nights in a row followed by 22*f the 3rd night with the low going up the next few days! No protection on any palm except a potting bucket over Nannorrhops, livistona nitida, acoelorrhaphe wrightii. This winter almost the same as 1st with are lowest temp so far 20*f. But it's ben nice the past few weeks & I hope it stays this way or lease temps don't get below 22*f I shouldn't get any more damage! Winter protection I put sheets on most palms except Washingtonia's, Chamaerhops, Trachycarpus, butia's. & a bucket over nannorrhops when it rained with sheet.

Many junipers do well in that setting and they come in so many color / size / shape options, including a few "mini italian cypress" looking forms. Hetzii, etc The 'Sky Pencil' holly is super, and evergreen bayberry is another good native. You'd need to train it to the size you'd want, but they are VERY easy to trim. I LOVE the look of a mixed scrub / shrub hedge or thicket. I'll try to post pics of some nice local ones. Try Cuppressus arizonica - Arizona Cypress if you want a bigger, blue tree. I'm not fond of Leyland Cypress, but it might work for you. Podocarpus macrophyllus is cool if you have shade - use the dwarf 'Maki' if space is tight. PS - My cryptos are doing ok in sandy coastal zone 8A, so far anyway.

"As a gardener I am worried that I will just plant things and not have them create the finished look I'm hoping for." This is exactly what will happen if work proceeds without a comprehensive plan! The drawing is a good start for something to add measurements to in order that you can plot it out accurately on graph paper. As Gardengal mentioned, it needs to be to scale, so someone preparing to figure out what will fit ... will know if it will fit. One can also see all the bed shapes at a glance and know that they are compatible with one another and use good geometry for their lines. There is a tendency for drawings drawn by those who don't do it regularly to become very cluttered and hard to read, so I'd suggest you leave out everything extraneous and draw only the necessary: buildings, fences, curbs, landscape walls, walks, drive, tree trunks, AC, etc. Label plants at the edge of the drawing and use a thin line to connect it's name to the plant. The initial plan is a base plan. It shows only permanent existing features. Proposed features will come later on a copy. I was trying to reconcile one of your photos (left side of house) with the plan. The curb should be drawn in so we can see where the yard ends and know that there's a street over there. I see a birch tree in the pic but not on the plan. Is it being removed? The triangular raised bed does not look good. If you plan to get rid of it, don't show it on the plan. If you don't plan to get rid of it ... why? Dimensional lumber raised beds are typically for back yard and growing vegetables. For front yard and landscaping why would you want one? Not using one will generally look and work better. If you're going to create a high dollar raised bed out of brick or stone it would be different. Otherwise, I'd leave it out. The plan calls out roses, peonies, irises, etc. but is not showing any on the plan. Do these things exist, or are they simply desired? If the former, their beds should be shown. If the latter, they should not be shown or labeled on the base plan. Draw the fence and call it out only as "fence" without using any additional arrows. If the picket fence will be in a different location, leave the fence out for now. The stepping stones seems like their path would be subject to changing in a new plan. I would leave them out for now. If there was foundation planting at the house and any planting along fence (which looks like their direction you're leaning) then the stepping stone path would probably only fit somewhere near the center line of the space between house and garage. It's a fairly skinny area and plants take up room. Right now the path is headed square into a patch of grapevines so that doesn't seem like a good walking experience. For the time being, I wouldn't think of plants. Just think of the hardscape portions of the project: walks, fences, drive, beds, etc.