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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here, first, thank you all for your suggestions! Of course after reading all of them, I now have even more questions and ideas for you all:

For the soil, I just bought top soil and compost to mix into the existing soil. Is investing in a leaf composter a good idea for the future? We have tons and tons of leaves every year a out property is basically in the middle of an oak forest. As for the watering, I guess I just assumed I'd do it manually every morning but now I will look into a ground hose system per a PP's suggestion.

What about mulch? When do I mulch? Right after planting or in the fall or next spring?

Agree (reluctantly) with everyone that I have too many plants. Here is what I am thinking now:

The plot is roughly a "V" shape. The center of it - the point of the "V" - is a large triangle. This triangle gets full sun but the two "arms" do not. One arm gets a little more sun than the other, but both get about 2-3 hours of direct sunlight in late morning and then dappled.

What I am thinking is putting all my yellows, oranges, reds, and splashes of purple in the middle. I've narrowed it down to: black eyed Susan, tickseed, blanket flower, and some purple coneflower and meadow blazing star. Maybe some helenium for late season color. I suppose I better add in 6 milkweed there, too..

Then on the arms (partial shade), I'll have blues, whites, and splashes of pinks. I'm thinking: bergamot, sweet William phlox, columbine, astilbes, and asters.. And bell flowers.. And maybe I'll throw a joe pye or two in the back.

How does that sound? Still too many different flowers? Will the sun-loving, warm colors in the middle look bad with the partial shade, cool colors flanking??

What say you all? Thanks for your tips... and patience :)[/quote]

Patient gardener here.  You don't need a leaf shredder, just pile them up in a corner somewhere and wait until Spring.  The bottom of the pile will be nicely composted.  I would agree that you need to carry the same colors throughout the garden or it will look disjointed.  You want it to flow naturally.  I have multiples of the same plant but I don't group them, rather I plant them in varying spots in the garden to keep the eye moving along.  If you break up the color and keep it restricted to certain parts of the garden it is less pleasing to the eye.  Once plants are established you will be abe to ease up on the watering but until then you need to have a plan like a drip system.  You can mulch in either Spring or Fall but you should mulch. Make sure you mix the soil ammendment in with the clay, don't just dig a hole and put the topsoil and composted manure in.  You will get the 'bathtub' effect and drown your plant plus it's not good for the roots.  Completely dig up the whole area and mix the composted manure, mulched leaves or superfine and existing clay soil into the entire space.  Only after that do you dig your holes. [/quote]

Patient Gardener, thank you again due taking the time to help me. Now I'm thinking that perhaps I should just start with the part that gets full sun - the middle triangle. I'm really most drawn to the warm colors, the yellows, orange and reds of the plants I listed above. I think it would look dramatic to mix in purples then. Coneflower and blazing star, as I said earlier, but now maybe I'll add in splashes of purple salvia or speedwell...

None of these plants are super tall though, so would it again be too much if I put compass plants mixed in with native grasses (like Indian grass?) and more blazing star in the back? Any other nice tall natives in that color scheme I could add?

Now, onto the shaded half. What can I do with it, if it would look bad to change the colors? It's too shaded for most of the flowers in the middle. Any astilbes that would look nice? Right now, there's just hostas, wild geranium (that's now a scraggly) and wild ginger growing there - BORING![/quote]

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