Spring has sprung

We've been having the most glorious weather recently and it has had us running out into the garden. Our garden is in a bit of a sorry state. Mostly because the main flower bed has been earth for the last year while I have tried to dig out all the ground elder roots. Hopefully I've done this now and so can get onto planting it asap and get some colour back. I'm very excited about the planting and have been pouring over books, magazines and websites to get some inspiration. But I'm also a little daunted by the whole prospect, having made a list of all the plants that I like and that might be able to survive in our garden, I've then got to put them together into some sort of scheme or order and it's this part that is causing me anxiety. I'm not sure I have the confidence to turn my general half thought through ideas about how I'd like the bed to look into reality. Then there's the deer and slug problem we have which is very disheartening and very expensive when all the lovely plants get munched! If anyone has any handy tips on how to do this or some lovely garden blogs to look at please let me know!!

PS trying to attempt a cottage garden style garden on chalky soil!