Topsoil or potting soil better for new planting?

You wanted to design your garden in different areas, right?

I (still) don't know (anymore). In the meantime, we have decided that, at my husband's request, we want to create a swimming pond. This requires a separate planting trench. Since we plan to have a well dug in August and also want a small stream leading to the swimming pond, I am not quite sure yet if and how many areas there will be. The only thing clear so far is that we will not have a vegetable garden area nor a compost garden area. We are not focused on efficiency and will plant some useful plants among the other plants.

I find concentrated clusters of one color rather artificial; another color (whichever) can only loosen that up and make it look more natural.

The other color is green.

I use "Flora Incognita" from the Technical University of Ilmenau

Thank you very much. I suffer from the problem that I am not yet a plant person and don’t know most of the things in my garden ;) I would recommend you sketch the property and house on a sheet of paper (with a ballpoint pen) and then roughly to scale draw the different areas and zones (with a pencil, easy to change). It doesn’t have to be super accurate, graph paper with 0.5cm=0.5m is completely sufficient. It is enough if the areas are conceptually labeled, e.g. flower meadow, shade bed, etc. or in your case yellow bed, pink bed... ;) Once that has settled a bit, go into the garden with it and mark with spray paint what should go where. That helps to plan the garden a bit more structured. Especially when you have many ideas and can only implement part of them.

Dear Pinki, I see yellow is your favorite color :)
There are many great plants in that range and you already have some native ones among them.

I would mostly work with native plants, but first, as Wilder Süden says, get to know your location. By the way, wild carrot is a very important insect plant (e.g., the food plant for swallowtail caterpillars) and grows on normal to nutrient-rich garden soil.

I would recommend naturaDB to you. There you can filter by your soil conditions, bloom colors, etc., and plants will be suggested to you that should grow well for you. If you also check the box for native plants, the native wildlife will benefit a lot from it.

Which region are you in? Then I could suggest regional seeds if you are patient.

Be careful, with perennials and annuals – native plants are hardly available in nurseries (unless they specialize in them) or garden centers. If you tell me roughly where you live (if necessary, the federal state, I think Saxony or Saxony-Anhalt, but I’m not sure), then I can gladly recommend good nurseries to you. Otherwise, I also order quite a bit online.

Dear Pinki, I see yellow is your favorite color :)
There are many great plants in that color, and you already have some native ones among them.

I would mostly work with native plants, but first, as Wilder Süden says - get to know your location. By the way, wild carrot is a very important insect plant (e.g. the food plant for the caterpillars of the swallowtail butterfly) and grows in normal to nutrient-rich garden soil.

I would recommend naturaDB to you. There you can filter by your soil conditions, bloom colors, etc., and plants will be suggested to you that should grow well for you. If you also check the box for native, the local wildlife benefits greatly.

Which region are you from? Then I could also suggest regional seeds if you have patience.

Be careful with perennials and annuals – native plants are hardly found in nurseries (unless they specialize in them) or garden centers. If you tell me roughly where you live (at a push, the federal state; I think Saxony or Saxony-Anhalt, but I’m not sure), I can gladly recommend good nurseries. Otherwise, I order quite a bit online.

I live in the district of Leipzig, postal code 0457x. :)

I will proceed step by step, because I am already absolutely happy with the wild carrots. It doesn't bother me that there is no carrot at the bottom. I am grateful for suggestions, and native plants are absolutely favored by me. Now I’m inspired to browse Natura DB again right away.

Thank you very much, then you are in the regional area (VWW) UG 5 - Central German lowlands and hilly landscape. At Saaten Zeller, you could sow the basic mixture, for example (I would recommend that). Instructions are included. However, it only makes sense to do this in autumn or spring, otherwise you will have to water a lot.

In Leipzig there is also NaturGartenSamen on etsy, which has many native seeds.
I haven't quickly found any perennial nurseries nearby.

At Strickler, Gaissmayer, and StaudenSpatz there are great perennials; I have also ordered from there and was very satisfied.

The carrots look great too. I have a lot and hope that the eggs I found are from the swallowtail butterfly :).

... The wild carrot is by the way a very important insect plant (e.g. the food plant of the swallowtail butterfly caterpillars) and grows on normal to nutrient-rich garden soil. ...

Do you know a plant that has the properties/advantages of the wild carrot but blooms yellow? By the way, I read in my app that the wild carrot should not be mown because it will also look really good in winter. I'm curious.