From a distance, it doesn't look so bad. But you see it up close. Are you unhappy with the small detail, or scale and proportion, or bare ground near the pot? Do you have "no-no's" such as certain colors you'd never use? I'm not a pro, but playing with ideas is fun, don't take it too seriously. A water feature is certainly an option. Another would be a small tree with interesting shape - I don't know if corylus avellana "contorta" can be grown where you are. Googling "architectural plants" might turn up more ideas. Raising the pot up from the ground and planting something that cascades over the edge would be interesting as well. For edging, plants whose foliage covers the ground (you seem to have plenty of those in the outer circle, it's OK to repeat). Just kidding - a marble Venus half dressed in ivy?

My ex didn't want me to get this birdbath and it is one of the things that was the final straw in our marriage. Actually the other thing was three round bales of hay. That was nine years ago. When I had this birdbath on the other side of my creek before I moved the garden over here, I had Ranuculas around it which looked really pretty. When I get my new bare root roses through the mail, the roses get put in the bird bath prior to planting. All the large rainfall last Summer killed my perianals around the birdbath. I will have to get some more My girls put this statue in the birdbath some years ago, the lady is nursing a baby and I thought it was appropiate. Too bad about her neck or head and I haven't repaired it yet.

Hi Kjmama. Les917 asks the right question: why do you need a focal point? Sure, some successful rooms have them, but others don't, and they're certainly not a requirement of a good looking room--or a beautiful landscape, or whatever. Ask yourself: what is the focal point of a flower-strewn meadow? Or a pine forest in the snow? When is the last time you heard someone say about a sunny beach "It's nice, but there's no focal point." It doesn't matter, and anybody who thinks it does has been been watching too many TV decorating shows. Often, though, when people talk about a room's focal point, what they're really talking about is just a big piece of furniture or a big painting or a fireplace, but as Les917 points out, in most homes, the actual focal point--versus the alleged focal point--is the TV anyway, and if you don't believe me, stick the TV at one end of the room & the fireplace at the other end and watch which way people turn their heads. Let's face it, Real Housewives beats burning logs any day. I'm not saying that's a good thing, but it's a fact. Might as well face it. So if the fireplace with its a careful arrangement of wooden candlesticks, wood box & scrolly iron clock ends up an also-ran in the attention department, don't worry about it. Stuff happens. And if you don't even have a fireplace for people to ignore, well, that's one less thing to fret about. Besides, here's what Nancy Lancaster, one of the biggest names in 20th Century English decorating had to say about focal points, even though she uses another term: "You never want to have only one 'mouvement' thing like the Savonnerie rug that would stand out. You must have 'mouvement' everywhere." In other words, keep the eye moving. Let people focus on whatever they want. They will anyway, so you might as well give 'em permission. Let's take as examples my two most-recent places. In the living room of my former apartment, there was a camelback sofa with a Rococo-style mirror above it centered on one wall. Another wall was centered on an eight-foot-high bookcase; another wall had a Chippendale-style table flanked with farthingale chairs, with an arrangement of paintings hanging above everything in the middle, and the fourth wall had a triple window in the center, in front of which I positioned an antique daybed. It was all very calm & orderly, but with a major symmetrical arrangement centered on every single wall, which wall was the focal point? Actually, none of them, because I don't do focal points. At least, I don't plan them. They just happen. Sometimes, that is, they happen. Anyway, like I said, that was my old place. My new apartment has more or less the same set up that you face: four walls, each of which is centered on a door or a window. There's not a single unbroken wall. Oh well. Which means the pieces of furniture that used to be set against the walls are either floating in the room for the simple reason that there isn't anywhere else to put them. or they've been banished to another room, and other, smaller pieces have taken their place on either side of the openings. And you know what? It's OK. Likewise, if you concentrate on making your own room comfortable & attractive, no one will even notice that there's no focal point. Magnaverde Rule No. 16: Decorate for the life you really have, not the life you wish you had. Regards, Magnaverde.

Bustopher , thank you for the ideas ! I am expanding the bed this week to accommodate the roses , so I hope that helps . Unfortunately I am tapped out in the money dept so what I have coming is kinda all I can plan with for now . I do wish I could squeeze Olivia into an order somehow ! And I had the lady gardener and wish it had survived but it didn't . Hopefully what I do have can make a lovely bed ! Flowers .. I buy in bulk from American meadows or peaceful valley farms and usually the California mix or a cut and come again type . In late May I get someone with a farm tiller to fill up the strip in front of the house and then before it rains I go out and hand toss my seeds . I lightly walk over them but certainly don't get them all walked on. Then I only spend the first few weeks or so worrying about rain or dragging the hose out . They are very easy for me but I do plant so many ( one pound ) I'm sure i lose some . They love the intense heat we have here ! Does your climate get really hot ? I'm not sure if it helps but they seem to like it . So last year my photos show they were sprouting by May 28 and I have photos of my baby seated in them on July 11. They seem to come up quickly! I don't now them down til almost November and they die on their own so as many birds get seeds as I can and any straggling butterflies still have some food