I spend a lot of time noodling on this topic. This is what our site is all about: helping you sift through the delightful but dizzying myriad of available plants to decide which ones to add to your garden, and what to plant withthem.
It's also the subject of one of my upcoming talks at the Northwest Flower and Garden Show. As I work on developing new content for the talks, I'll be posting design topics on the blog. I hope you'll follow along!