It depends on the plants you have. Some will spread more than 12 inches in the first year, some won't. When designing a new bed, you should plant in drifts, groups of the same plant. Generally 3 or more plants. Some plants do better with 6. So, as I said, it depends on the plants.

If this is your first time laying out beds, I'd suggest buying/borrowing some design books. Also, bhg.com has a lot of garden plans and articles. Including a link :)

Here is a link that might be useful: BHG.com design

Jodie, I agree with above, plant in drifts (groups of same plant). And, for longer beds, pick something of real interest to you, and repeat that every now and then the length of the bed to focus and draw the eye - that can be one plant of significance, a repeated focal point/accent. If not exactly the same plant, then something of like size, color, texture - a repeated accent if that makes any sense.

I wish I could find the lecture online where Hinkley showed gardens, then digitally removed accents (called them exclamation points!) from the garden photos to make his point, the difference was amazing. So far I've only found the link to a description of the lecture and not the actual lecture but I'll keep trying, U of WA TV repeats it in their broadcasts every now and then so I know it's on film somewhere and you'd love it.

And don't even plan on getting the whole thing right your first try. That kind of garden is going to change and evolve with your tastes and trials every year for years...have fun with it, don't stress - I haven't found a plant or group of plants yet that can't be moved :)

Here is a link that might be useful: Hinkley - Exclamation points in the garden

I'm taking notes and learning lots. Thank you to everyone that takes the time to share their knowledge :)

Jodie, Thanks for this post. You are so right. There is very little available online to assist in projects such as this. I think I have read every post available on this site in Winter Sowing, Cutting Garden and Cottage Garden. Last night I went through the 10 pages of posts in the Gallery.

I have landscaped before with the aid of a landscape architect and a crew of landscapers. We had 3 acres of paths, beds, ponds and streams and I never sowed a single seed or planted a shrub, tree or flower myself. We downsized, had a new home built and started over with a blank slate - a lawn that had just been seeded and builders quality foundation plantings. Although what we had in our previous home was picture perfect, I want to do this project myself. We started with the front first. All the foundation plantings were removed, replaced planted elsewhere on the property and we put in a "real" lawn. This year we want flowers, flowers, flowers and vegetables.

I am a compulsive list maker. I have made a spreadsheet of every seed I have sown that includes height, spacing, sun requirements, color and bloom time. Like yourself, I am planning between 3,000 and 4,000 square feet of planting - doing sort of a raised bed necklace around two sides of the new property.

People at this site are so gracious and helpful. I will watch this thread and take advantage of the good advise I am sure you will receive. I admire what you are doing in your garden despite the responsibilities you have as a young mother.

Best wishes...and let us know what you are planning.

Dorothy (Meadows)

Meadows-I would love to sit & have coffee or tea with you! LOL I think we are "2 peas in a pod!" I too am a list maker. I schedule out my day-each & every hour. It's the ONLY way I can keep balance & keep my sanity! :P It allows me to prioritize & get everything done I need to get done. It's a spreadsheet on the computer. Yes, my kids too! I have to with all their activities, practices, homework & their FREE TIME!! Gotta make sure we ALL get some down time. For me, that's my ws time. I try to get an hour a day.

I also started a database of my seeds. I even numbered each type of flower & wrote that on all my ws jugs. I made a column for flowering time, spacing, sun, water etc... Been trying to fill it in but time constraints haven't allowed me to fill in all the columns! I know I will need it come planting time. (sigh) I guess I posted this as to find a "way out" of filling in all my database cause I just don't know when I'll get to it! I have to get my seeds ws'n & start hauling dirt come mid-late March. No worries, somehow, someway it ALL GETS DONE!

Thanks for the links too guys! I browsed them some last night & hope to do more tonight! GREAT INFO!!

Wow sounds like you two have some great times ahead. I don't know the post but awhile back someone mentioned that when planting out they arrange the containers first to see how it looks space wise. I found this useful too. That way before you dig you can see the space things take up. It also helps in planning your drifts.

I can't find my pic of all my cups and jugs sitting in my bed but here are some of the others.

Right after planting out.
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A little time later
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later that summer
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I can't find a single pic of it all grown up and overflowing the edges but it did.

Because I had perennials that stay small the first year I planted annuals between and around them to take up the space and protect them from weeds. It worked really well and kept things nice and colorful.
This year I am expecting first blooms from my perennials and there won't be as much room for annuals. I did keep areas for some though so there will still be color as things mature. : )

It's pretty simplistic but it's also free & right at your fingertips--the Bluestone Perennials website & catalog have garden designs you can look at to get ideas for which plants to plant where & in what order, relationship or design. I like them because they're drawings rather than photos so you can see the layout and see the plant names at the same time. They offer curved beds, linear foundation beds and island beds plus designs for both sun and shade. As long as you're looking at those, you can also read about moisture & soil requirements. It's not award-winning garden design--for that I have a book by Rosemary Verey--but since that's not my primary goal, it's as good a place to get started as any.

I have a huge full sun bed to fill this year that already has multiple mature peonies, 30 established clumps of daylilies, bearded iris, clematis, Russian sage and a pure white rose of Sharon. I'm drawing in my WS perennials and at the same time attempting to design a pattern or theme. It's not a snap-of-the-fingers effort but I think it'll come out looking fantastic in the long run. If I get the chance today, I'll take a photo of the drawing and post it here.

I second meadows in thanking Jodie for this post as it's something many of us will be scratching our heads over in a few weeks.

I wanted to add to my post last night the books we're using in my perennials class this year. Bought them all on Amazon, they're available pretty cheap there, if you get them used. Anyway.
1. The Perennial Gardener's Design Primer by Stephanie Cohen and Nancy Ondra
2.The Well Tended Perennial Garden Planting and Pruning Techniques by Tracy DiSabato-Aust
3. Rodale's Illustrated Encyclopedia of Perennials by Ellen Phillips and C. Colston Burrell

1. We haven't used much. Our prof is a big fan of it though. They have garden plans laid out, and you can see in their plans the center of each plant. Gives you some idea of each plant's eventual spread

2. Haven't used it yet. However, one of our assignments in the class was to find articles online or in magazines, and the author of the book wrote one of the articles I used. It was basically a list of plants, when to prune, what to pinch to get rebloom, etc. The article went into a file of stuff I'm keeping for reference material for myself, so I'm guessing the book is even better.

3. I suggest you buy this one. It has hundreds of pages on plants divided by species. It has info on bulbs and other perennials, but not woodies. Has chapters on design as well. There's chapters devoted to soil improvement, what kind of mulch and when. Also, there's design info in this one as well. Basically, it's an all around good informative book for a perennial garden. $15.40 on amazon

I am sucha a newbie.... I kept reading about how to plant in "drifts" & I just couldn't get a picture in my head of what that meant!! I figured there had to be others out there like me so I wanted to share this link that really explained it well!!

Still looking for ANY ideas on planting out my ws plants so if you stumble across a good link, PLEASE share it with me!!! THANK YOU to those that already have shared info!!

My problem is that with SO MANY I'm not sure I'll have time to carefully plan out & draw my beds so it will have to be a combination of "intuitive planting" (as someone else called it) & ideas I see off the internet! :P And realize this is a process & I'll modify in years to come as things change & grow. :)

Here is a link that might be useful: planting in drifts

OOPS! WRONG LINK POSTED! SORRY-HERE'S THE RIGHT ONE!

Here is a link that might be useful: planting in drifts