When we moved here in spring of '07, I had tons of stuff from my old garden that needed a home ASAP, much of which was blooming shrubs. I made some rough sketches of how I wanted beds to ultimately be shaped and where they should be, then, pretending they were already there, started planting my Lilacs, Roses, and a few other shrubs. I situated the fragrant ones for nose convenience- where they could be enjoyed without tromping into the beds, and thorny stuff toward the envisioned centers of beds. Later, I "connected the dots", either stripping sod to connect the plantings, or using a lasagna method to smother sod and create garden space between shrub plantings. So I kinda went at it backwords, but did at least get the woody "bones" in place that first year.
Having my color schemes already in mind, I was then able to just plug various plants into the beds where their colors and forms suited best.
