When I first started gardening, it was great fun seeing what would or wouldn't grow. I collected cacti and scented geraniums (pelargoniums), and had a wide assortment of culinary herbs. Little forethought went into any design or view of the yard as a whole, and you would have been hard pressed to call it a garden. Playin' outside is exactly what I've always done, with little attention paid to the longer view of gardening - design. Gaining proficiency in propagation and some skill in keeping plants alive did not lend cohesion to my chaos. Local garden centers never talked about design but were always happy to feed my addiction to the new and unusual. Being a master gardener put me in the company of others who shared my fascination, but who also rarely if ever discussed design. So I gathered more plants but it's fair to say my yard looked MUCH better in close ups. Chaos continued to reign. A gardening friend calls it "cramscaping". ...
If you're particularly interested in rainwater harvesting, see these posts: "900 and Counting" on 4/28/08, "First Crop" on 4/10/08, "Ongoing Saga of the Rain Tank" on 3/2/08, and "The Debate" on 2/7/08. Vermiculture was covered 8/12/08. Pond construction was covered in "The Heart of Our Garden" on January 22, 2008.