Mixed bed second year - planting

This is the showstopper bed in my cottage garden on Oak Hill. It's a large eye-catching bed right in front of the house and today it's time to start planting this year's plants in the bed. I created the bed last year right here on a particularly uninspiring stretch of the lawn. Well it turned out wonderful though. The bed was such a source of joy for both me and anyone passing by. But it didn't start that way. The bed looked a bit miserable in winter which I was able to correct with a few bags of horse manure. Now I just added the grass clippings on top and started planting. I'm going to put a mix of vegetables and flowers in this bed. Plants I think will go well together. The first step is to put the plants on top of the bed so that I can see where they should go. If I have more than one of each variety then I try to put them together. This bed basically does not have any soil at all since it's so new. The mulch has not turned into regular soil yet. I push the material aside and create a little hole. If it's very dry outside or I decide to plant a smaller plant then I put a few handfuls of soil in the hole too. If the mulch is damp however then I just put my plant right in the mulch like this. I use a solar powered watering system to water this bed. The holes underneath the grass clippings water my bed several times a day so it's always damp. Right now I am growing dahlia, garlic, peppers, chrysanthemum, Virginia tobacco, squash, chard, rutabaga, eggplant, tomato and a few large artichokes that I overwintered. And the cherry on top. Plenty of sweet peas. I made little rows with soil here in the mulch and watered them a while before planting. Now I just push the little sweet pea plugs from the tray and plant them in the damp soil.