I love it! In the sunny spots, you could plant roses. Knockouts have good color and are disease free. They can get large, so don't plant them too close together.

In the shady parts you could plant some japanese maples.

It sounds very exciting. Please post pictures when you do plant.

Wonderful - we all have too much grass! I hope you will consider adding some native plants to this area. Sun and shade, wet and dry, there are native possibilities for all conditions.

Here is a link that might be useful: Georgia Native Plant Society

How will you control runoff?

Everything on the property slopes to one side. There is a catch basin in the middle of the gravel area that is kind of visible in the picture. My husband has spent years slowly grading the property to make use of a few natural drainage ditches alongside the house (the lower part of our property has a large creek where everything eventually ends up). The area directly in front of the house is pretty stable now, even when we had the unheard of 500 year flood 2 years ago this whole area was unaffected. Once the beds are planted I'm thinking we'll be golden :).

Looks awesome. I live in the Alpharetta area, right near downtown, been living here for 15 years . Used to be a vendor at the Down Town Alpharetta Farmers market before they became more commercialized and I started college. . Still thinking about going back as a vendor, it's very temping and it's only like a $500 investment. . I like talking to the Milton police/Firemen, and I went to the OLD Milton Highschool. I work full time and just graduated last August from North Georgia College and State University. I spend my free time playing music with my dad, working out, and doing some serious garden work. Nice to hear some people living close by that are in to landscaping.