I like the outline of your beds. I'd be tempted to leave the railroad ties in place and put the same bed design in front of the railroad ties. I have a narrow cement walk around my house, in my back yard. I hated it at first, and I would have pulled it out the first few months I lived in the house, expect I was busy with so many other projects. But after a year, I've actually grown to appreciate that cement walk, now its a keeper. You can always pull the ties out later if you STILL hate it after a summer or two.

I caution you that if you attempt to fill all those beds this Spring, with bushes, perenials, and annuals you are looking at a project that will cost well over a thousand dollars.

I'd start with the project closest to you front door and back patio begining with a few bushes and annuals. That way you'll get great all summer impact and you'll also get a feel for your land. Then spend the summer preparing one or two other beds for fall planting. Bring in soil amendments, chart the amount of sun (in hours and minutes) each bed recieves. Do a lot of research regarding what plants do well in your area. A good way to do this is look at the high end (read expensive) residential and commerical buildings in your area. What sorts of plants are they using? Draw out plans, and redraw them.

Starting a new garden is 90% prep work, planning and preparing the earth and just 10% planting.

Begining in August, the national home improvement stores in my area put their plants on sale for 30; then 50; then 75% off. The orange store has pretty basic stuff, and their things go on sale later in the season. But I bought five knock out roses there for 25 cents a piece, because they forgot to water them, last July. (At the time the poor critters looked pretty sad.) But by October those five plants were loaded with roses! So keep out an eye for neglected plants, everywhere you go. (I've even been known to take pots and plants off the curbs on trash day, and beg cuttings from friends, but I digress.)

The blue store often has more interesting plants, and their stuff goes on sale earlier than the orange place, but sometimes the blue store's plants are not zone appropriate so be careful. But I found that the store that brings good things to life often had the best selection of really unusual plants that are zone appropriate, and they hit 75% off much earlier in the Fall.

As a result, I think that Fall would be the time to plant one or two beds. Last fall I put in three largish beds, during the fall months, purchasing MOST of my plants at 50 or 75% off and STILL spent about $800. That was a suprising visa bill.

I had a large yard in Dallas, where gardening is a year 'round and frankly somewhat competitive activity. I worked on my yard CONSTANTLY and spent freely, never counting the costs. Still I was in my house nearly five years before I finished installing all the beds that I had planned. It will take time, but in the end you will be so, so pleased with not only your end product but also the journey that led you there.

Thanks so much westhighland. This will definetely be more than a year or 2 of planning and planting. Just trying to plan out where I want the beds and then finding plants in this area. I am going to do the bed by the door and the hill in the back this year. B/c those are the ones we will mostly see and benefit from. In the next 2 years we will work on the side and back walkway areas. This will definetely be several years, since we are on a budget. I'm a sale shopper so I can;t wait til end of season sales.

Ruth