My 10+ rules (of landscaping)

1. First, PLANT evergreens to the north (feng shui, good luck)
2. Second, find a place to put in RASPBERRIES and strawberries
3. START with one small area and build an overall plan gradually.
4. Put in plants that make you HAPPY - lilacs, hollyhocks, yellow roses...
5. GENEROUS beds. At least 3' wide w/5' preferred. Too small beds are the worst and most common mistakes.
6. Find out which way the wind blows and put in scented plants so that the scent blows IN to your space.
7. Divide and propagate
8. ALWAYS take a camera and/or a notebook on Garden Tours.
9. BUY throughout the seasons, you'll automatically have year round bloom.
10. SUBSCRIBE to every magazine. Inspiration is where you find it.
11. Stay FLEXIBLE. Ideas about which plants to put where, and how to treat an area, for example, will change due to trial and error and your own changing tastes.
12. KEEP some kind of record of what you planted where and when. A Journal? Why not?
13. Look at it from different perspectives - get up on the roof, for example.
14. Take pride in the results. Enjoy the failures, too. It's a process.
15. Don't be afraid to rip it out and move it somewhere else.

Related:
Penelope Hobhouse's 10 Rules of Landscaping:
10 more rules: