Hi taraleigh, So far, it sounds like you've done a good job with your garden by planting things that will thrive with the good drainage that your sandy soil likely has. The only plant I could see being a problem may be the Bee Balm, since it likes rich, constantly moist, humusy soil, and can develop powdery mildew if its in a crowded spot. It sounds like you have kind of a "Cottage Garden" look going on in this bed, so I wouldnÂt worry too much about "casual" style plants next to more formal ones. In general, I think the soil conditions, moisture, PH (acid, neutral or alkaline) and light conditions that different varieties of plants need to be healthy is the main thing people should concern themselves with when planting a new garden. Then you can find plants that you like the look of, that thrive in the conditions of your particular garden area. The bloom time of various flowering perennials, as well a garden's ability to look good in the fall and winter is also a consideration. I would just "google" each of your plants, check their water, sun, and soil PH requirements, and provide them with what they need. At this point in the summer, I wouldn't transplant anything, so hopefully you are pleased with how your garden area looks for now. If you donÂt like the placement of anything, I would wait until the spring to move it. As far as your overall garden design goes, I agree with laceyvail about the arrangement. You didn't say what direction the sun is coming from in relation to this garden bed, but you may want to check that the more drought-tolerant plants are on the side that gets the most hot afternoon sun. Also, be sure that anything tall isn't creating an excessive shade area over smaller plants that needs full sun. You will have some autumn interest with your "Blue Star" aster, "Autumn Joy" stonecrop, "Blanket flower", and Artemisia "Silver Mound". Personally, I would have added some low-growing evergreen shrubs that tolerate sandy soil, such as Common Bearberry / Kinnikinnick (Arctostaphylos uva-ursi) to this bed, but that would just be my preference as far as some winter interest. Not sure what your soil PH is, but your soil would need to be acidic, sandy soil to grow Kinnikinnick. The foliage of your daylilies, asiatic lilies, veronica, bee balm, delphinium, "Snow In Summer", and Shasta daisy will likely die back to varying degrees in the winter in Zone 5. But in Zone 5, the bed will most likely be covered in snow for much of the winter, so you won't notice the dormant foliage as much. In the fall or spring, you can always add an evergreen small shrub or two that tolerates sandy soil. This fall, you may also want to add some spring-flowering bulbs, so that you have some early spring interest in this garden plan. Be prepared to be pulling up some of those "Snow in Summer", Artemisia "Silver Mound", and Shasta daisies if they get too invasive in this bed. Daylilies can have buds on them for many, many days before they bloom. I prefer the pretty lemony-yellow of the "Happy Returns" to the margarine-yellow of the "Stella D'Oro", but they are both pretty easy to care for daylilies, and both bloom well. The "Stella D'Oro" is really tiny. As far as colors go, I like to keep plants with blossoms on the red-orange side of the color spectrum (such as your "Black Bird" Lily) away from plants that have purple or blue-ish blossoms (such as your delphinium, and "Lavender Joy" lily, but this is just my personal preference color-wise. Hope this helps and good luck with your new garden!

Matt, It looks to me like the first one isn't a flower - it is some leaves emerging from a stem. On many plants, new leaves are often reddish. I am not sure which plant this is. The second appears to be flower buds on a branch of a vine. I can't tell from the picture which plant it is.

I have weeds like that pop up periodically.

I really think you should check out some of the posts in the container gardening forum. Your best bet for growing veggies on a roof in NYC will be to use very lightweight potting media and fertilization with every watering. That is how the upscale restaurants do it there. Basically you are going to be creating a "to waste" hydroponics system. But don't let that discourage you. A "to waste" system is very simple. All you have to do is mix up some fertilizer in a watering can and water you pots. I'm not talking about a recirculating system or anything like that. The materials you are going to want to use are things like pumice or turface (a calcined clay product). There is also Axis which is a mined diotomaceous earth product that is substantially lighter than turface. Now with regards to being organic, this is possible but the fertilizers are going to be a bit more expensive. You will probably need to buy your ferts from a hydroponics store. If you use a potting medium like turface you will be able to use that medium over and over and over again. If you try to use organic "soil", it will break down and depending on how fine the soil was to begin with will only last 2 maybe 3 years tops before you have to lug all that soil back down from the roof and replace it by lugging new soil all the way back up. Container culture is vastly different than growing plants in the ground. The plants exhaust the organic nutrients in the pots very quickly at which point they have to be supplied by you.