Any advice is appreciated.
I don't have a book to recomend except maybe the "Sunset Western Garden Book"
which at least based on the title may not apply to you, but a couple of
years ago I took a lanscape design class and I can give you a quick
summery:
Pick a theme - Tropical, woodlands, Japanese, English formal, etc.
Don't mix palm trees with pine trees for instance, and
don't go too far afield from what the rest of your
neighborhood looks like.
Pick a color scheme - Up to three colors not counting green and white.
Also, grey green foliage doesn't mix well with yellow green
foliage.
Mass and repeat - don't put in one of each kind of plant.
Not too uniform - Choose plants with various sizes of leaves, don't
plant rows or even numbers. Try odd numbers of plants
placed in triangles of unequal size. Ignore this if
you are planting an English Formal garden of course.
Probably the best thing to do is to look around at other people's
yards to see what you like and don't like.