Garden plans

Three friends came to visit on Sunday who hadn't seen the new house yet. Look at the beautiful hyacinths they brought for a housewarming gift:

It was a funny coincidence that just the night before I was telling Gregg that I plan to plant hyacinth and daffodil bulbs around the bottoms of five crepe myrtle trees on the side of the house. Now I have a head start with the hyacinths! As soon as these finish blooming I'll plant them outside for next year. 

I've been having a lot of fun planning what I'm going to plant on our tiny little property. So far these are the things I've decided to have for sure:

• Four 8x4 raised beds as a permanent place to grow veggies and some annual herbs. These will be on the sunniest side of the back yard, and will probably be made of brick or concrete blocks instead of the standard wooden frames. 
• A large raised bed in front of the back porch that will be planted with perennial herbs and flowers for attracting bees and butterflies.
• A fig tree in the back left corner of the back yard. Probably the variety "Celeste".
• Two pomegranate shrubs, also in the back yard. I already have one that's been living in a large pot for years, and now it's time to give it a permanent home. I've read that you can increase flowering and fruiting if you have two or more, which is why I plan to buy another. Some of my neighbors had them when I was growing up and we kids enjoyed eating them in the summer.
• Two or three camellias in the back, too, to cover up the spots where we can see through to our jerk neighbor's back yard. Camellias have that wonderful evergreen foliage that will make a nice screen year round. In the winter, nothing is any prettier than camellias in flower, cheering up the otherwise dull landscape. I have no idea what colors/varieties to pick, though. If Ms. Moon has any thoughts on this I'd love to hear them! She's the Queen of beautiful camellia flowers!
• In the front yard, I want to eventually plant a small bed of roses with some nice companion flowers to go along with them. One rose I know I want is the famous "Peace" rose, but I've not decided which others to include. Any rose lovers reading that would like to offer suggestions? Somewhere on this property (maybe up the Southeast corner of the house) I'd like to plant a climbing "Don Juan" rose, but that's the only other variety I've decided on for now.

Of course, this is all going to take some time to accomplish (and to afford!). I plan to start with planting the fig tree (this spring) since a tree needs the most time to get established. Hopefully this summer while I'm off I can work on building the raised beds, at least.  I have enough plans already to keep me busy for years!