STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

I love having a yard and talking about plants.  I find plants fascinating.  And if you're good at interior design, you'll be fine at making your yard beautiful too--it's actually not that different.  You want to keep in mind color, texture and scale, like you do in any room. 

I'm very partial to perennials because they come back year after year and many of them spread as they age and start to fill in the garden nicely.  Some of them will completely die in the winter, but then spring comes and they just pop back up like nothing ever happened!  I have a shady yard, so the perennials I've planted are shade-loving plants, like columbine, coral bells, persicaria, hostas, lily of the valley, ferns, and some other random shade loving plants.  On occasion, I'll fill in some of the gaps with annuals like pansies or impatiens.  I also have rhodadendrons and azaleas in the front because they're green year-round.  On our deck, I have big pots full of rosemary, sage, thyme, basil, and tomatoes because that's where the sun hits and veggies and herbs love sun.

Anyway, find out where the sun hits and where it's shady all the time and plan accordingly.  In the sunny areas, plant your veggies and other sun-loving plants.  Home Depot and Lowes are great for veggies and other annuals, but I've found that they don't have a very wide selection of perennials.  If you have a local garden center, find someone there and they'll be able to help you since they'll know the climate well.  Local garden stores are a bit more expensive, but IMO, they're worth it. 

Here's a sample of some of the plants I have in the yard.  You'll notice that there's a variety of color and texture, even when the flowers aren't blooming.

Persicaria:

Hosta:
Bleeding Heart: 

Lily of the Valley:

Foxglove:
Strawberry Begonia:
Columbine:

This is awesome. Congrats!

I don't know what region you live in, but I just heard someone on a gardening show give an analogy that maybe you'll appreciate: the trees are the walls, the shrubs are the big pieces of furniture - like the armoire with the TV that you could move but you probably won't - and the perennials are the pillows, chairs, accessories, etc.

Like decorating/renovating, you may decide to do things differently based on if this is your "forever house" versus only staying a couple of years. That matters if, for example, you're uninclined to keep a lot of lawn area since you don't have kids who need a place to play soccer. But if you think you'll sell in five years, bear in mind that other people might want an expansive lawn for their kids. Or you may love Japanese maples, but if you won't be around to see an expensive specimen mature, you probably want to keep the maple in a big container and plant something that gives more short-term gratification. And so on.

Also like interiors, we've found that our tastes have changed a bit since we began gardening in earnest so we've done and undone things a lot. Things can always be moved so don't be freaked about planting. DH is a part-time landscape designer so I'm also beholden to his whims and fancies, and we keep a bunch of stuff in pots until we can agree on where to put it. (He's the plant lover and I'm the one who's into structures, hardscaping, fences, walls, irrigation, fountains, birdbaths, seating, trellises, pergolas, etc. So in my opinion only one must start with the rocks and the posts and the cement and the pipes/sprinklers and all the stuff that I like, and then plants come later!)

But really you're halfway there by just figuring out how you want to use this new space and what your needs are. Envision it and plan accordingly. Think about night versus day, summer versus winter, weekend versus weekday, and so on. You say you want hangout space, for example, so you probably want great smells, sounds, and pretty things to look at in the spots you plan on using for hanging out. Or maybe you want to be able to bring flowers into the house all the time, so you'll keep that in mind when you're making plans or shopping for plants.

Regarding vegetables, they mostly need all-day sun, and the closer they are to the house/kitchen the better off you are. Unfortunately vegetable gardens often aren't that attractive even in raised beds, so think about some sort of separation like a low fence with a gate and pretty climbing roses to delineate the space. I hear you about the soil, so rather than plant right away you may want to work on the soil first, so that you can go for broke next spring. Composting pays off in too many ways to count!

I would also sign up for a bunch of gardening catalogs (Wayside is my favorite) and start making wish lists.

I just wanted to say congrats! That must be so exciting, yay!