have piecemeal tried to create a cottage style garden; with little success; namely because only 35% of the garden is sunny enough to support those types of flowers and also because I've been a poor landscape designer.

I've planted the wrong types of plants next to each other hear and there and have misjudged what would do well in what lighting / soil (moist/dry).

Also, I never amended the dirt when I start, so the soil is just terrible.

Where it's sunny I have about 40 types of perennials including gallardias, lupines, sages, holly hocks, echinacheas, mums, and one clematis (more different perennials, just can't remember plant names). In the shadier back I have hostas, tiger lilies (new), lobelias, astilbes, etc.; on the half shady side I have lavender, next to primroses (dry/sunny vs. shade/moist), septums, one clematis that is not doing so well; another that is; campanulas that are doing great.

In the front border, facing the house, opposite the tall wall in the back; I planted snow drops, hyacinths, and lilies. However, when they died back I was left with a bare section; would love suggestions for what would do well to come up once these have died back; would need to be different options as the border ranges from sunny/dry to shady/dry (though I can water to make moister).

General drieness of the garden except for the shadiest spots is probably due to present weather conditions, lack of organic matter in the soil and fact that most of the garden has not filled in, so earth is exposed.

Have been a member of the BBG for 4 years, but am only recently visiting it more regularly. Have not called them for advice.

Would love a reasonably priced consultant locally; just to spend an hour hear and there assessing issues with the garden and recommending ways to fix; plants to move; to add.

Mostly frustrated by design; but love the gardening; really enjoy it and there are a lot of beautiful aspects to the garden.

Several things....

Vis a vis a consultant, BBG used to have a "class" in which you could also describe and work out a plan for your garden, which sounds very much along the lines of what you are looking for. If they still offer it (suspect they do) it would be in spring. Barring that, I know that Michelle of Gowanus Nursery offers design services. I don't know anyone who has used her, but the lovely offerings at her nursery bode well.

As for the 30 foot wall -- you can grow more than you might expect (especially given the depth of your garden). Up until last September, I had a 19 foot deep "south facing" garden back ended by a 24 foot wall, and, the back "bed" (it was 2 feet wide) was extraordinarily dry (there were two massive old ivies growing up from the bed that prevented even rain water from getting on it, and the bed was raised with a minimal border so watering was hard).

In that stressed bed, hostas thrived, as did campanula poscharskiana (really a lovely sprawling low growing campanula that will flower most of the summer if you pinch the flowering sprays off once they're finished). Also, there is a relatively new impatiens (Gowanus had it a couple of years ago, but didn't have it last year and I didn't check this year since I now have blazing sun conditions) called "Firefly" that is just lovely, formed 2-3 foot mounds in my tiny underwatered border. The peach-leafed campanulas (percicifolia) also held their own (and they, too, will come back throughout the summer if you snip of the spent flowering spikes).

Apart from the back border, some things that got a little more light and did better than you would expect .... salvia greggi "Cherokee Chief" (and, while tender, most of them survived the winter), the variegated lantana (I am not generally a fan of variegated foliage stuff but these looked quite lovely). Also, for filling in, there are some very nice torenia varieties these days.

Also, for your back wall, keep in mind that moonflowers (the evening blooming huge and fragrant form of morning glories) are quite shade tolerant -- I grew them successfully in a shaftway in Chelsea years ago.

Last, give yourself a chance. It sounds like you are learning a lot by observing what's happening, and to me that's the critical piece to becoming a successful gardener. It is also part of the wonderful experience of gardening that things never go as planned (sometimes positively, sometimes negatively)

Best,

Gaby