Bonnie, is the soil in your area made of clay or sand? I have clay--- hard pack clay. That was the first thing I had to deal with when I started my garden beds. I did a variety of things to get going. One might say I was obsessed. I tried all the techniques to set up new beds in a hurry. I came away knowing for certain, that the double digging technique is a necessary first step - one that was advocated to by Geoff Hamilton (a garden great). These are my experiences so far.... With the front yard, I somewhat cheated and hired a landscaper to install stone pavings for the walkway. In this case I had him remove all the lawn grass and topdress it with triple mix topsoil. I had not instructed him to rototill it into the ground (but on hindsight I should have). I took several shortcuts with this job because I had several potted plants that needed to go into the ground. Already I was delayed by more than a month in planting the perennials. So instead of tilling all the topsoil into the hardpack clay layer, I spot tilled it. whereever I planned to place my perennials I dug a big enough hole and basically tilled the topdressing, manure, bonemeal into the area. Unfortunately this front bed had a slope and so several bouts rainy weather resulted with soil erosion. I was constantly having to clean the sidewalks. So to remedy the problem, I addressed the area which was most vulnerable and installed a plastic lawn edger, slightly raised to prevent the water from entering the beds. Weedcloth was added to keep topsoil in place. Horizontal trenches throughout the bed to slow the flow of water. I used coconut coir to help slow water and act as mulch too. I then planted perennials with deep root capabilites to help break the flow and also to help hold the soil. Only then did I start planting the annuals to fill out the empty spaces. I would say, this front yard bed is now very pleasing. The backyard is another dilemma. Most recent as of today. I created 4 garden beds there. One by the backfence. Here I piled on upturned grass sods which were taken from other bed site. I left the grass here to rot and mixed it with topsoil and compost. It's largely made of clay and broken down with compost. At first it was a really ugly looking pile but now that the sods have broken down, planted with shade lovign plants, the area looks great and thriving The bed by the side of the fence, I dug the sod (used in the backfence bed) and clay out entirely and filled it with compost, topsoil, rotted manure. I used a newspaper layer to kill off the remaining grass. _-- result -- NOT TOO GOOD. Plants were stunted. It might as well be Sahara desert located in the middle of a jungle. The bed that lies next to this bed, was double dug. I got lazy and simply left much of hte clay in place, broke it up and added my topsoil, compost, manure nd builder's sand mix. The results were great. These 2 beds are constantly being affected by water that is coming from my neighbors yard and this is the problem I am now facing. I may need to raise the beds instead and somehow try to see what I can do to prevent the neighbor's water from flooding my area. Despite that, the bed with the 50%clay matter & 50% organic matter works wonderfully, while the other bed with 95% organic matter is not. Plants have suffered. Almost no earthworms in that area which means something is definitely not healthy about it. I can only speculate that there are some trace nutrients I wasn't able to address when putting in the topsoil - or perhaps that the topsoil is of poor quality. Or that the rain managed to wash away any trace nutrients. So the lesson in my story... Clay is good and double digging continues to be my preferred technique. Use topsoil from good garden centres, don't cheapen on it.

Thanks, all. I agree that the curves are a bit odd at places - I get the feeling the previous owners created the beds AFTER the bushes had grown considerably, as the shape of the beds mirrors the shape of the bushes almost exactly. The island actually looks considerably nicer than the photo reflects - I just took a bad picture at a bad angle. It breaks up the monotony of the front yard and the two trees provide some much-appreciated shade. That said, they both have grown quite a bit and are starting to actually block the view of the front of the house -- that's why I don't have a better photo of the entire front of the house. As for killing plants, I think my biggest problem is, to your point, knowing how much water is the right amount. We have very clay-y soil here (with topsoil and mulch in top) and I'm never sure if the roots are drowning or still dry when I water. I think I make the same mistake with my potted plants. My husband still jokes about the time I tried to grow a tomato plant at an old apartment of ours, and I gave it food and (what I though was the right amount of) water, I made sure it got lots of sun, I spoke to it and told it what a good little tomato plant it was... and it died. Or so we thought. We threw the lifeless remnants out in the dumpster and what did we find a week later? New growth, green stems, and little tomatoes forming! The garbage bin had a greener thumb than I did. My biggest concern with the house right now is the bed in front of the house, along the front face. How do I lay out the plants in a way that occupies the full space, provides some layering, and doesn't block the window? It there a layout that works well? Thanks for all your help so far!

IMO just like any kitchen you want something that can be cleaned easily I like slate for outdoor spaces both for the walls of the kitchen and the counters it stands up well to all kinds of waether cleans easily and looks awesome.Theother material to look at is soapstone. I ahve used 12 x 24 slate tiles too.

It is not so much the specific type of plants that are significant but their form or growing habit. Since we have no idea where you are located, it is impossible to say what plants would work best in your situation. You want to visit a local garden center and pick from those best suited to your locale but have the forms/shapes illustrated above. There are likely dozens of options.