I just love the quirky and unexpected. I have planted 2 toilets for the yard...both have gone by the wayside. I might have to do it again as it has been a couple years since my last one. I don't have a picture, but it had tons of vinca vine spilling over the edges of the tank and I had daisies planted in the bowl. My original idea was to have a planted bathroom out in the yard. Toilet, sink & tub. I never got further than the toilet though.

I've been wanting a Siberian Ginseng plant for a long while now and I haven't found one anywhere at any nursery nearby. Did you get yours mail order or locally? Do you have any pictures? By the way, your gardens look beautiful and very well organized! I wish mine looked so lush . . . is that an arbor in the foreground with the sun detail? It is gorgeous. I did find a very small, puny Bay Laurel the other day and I did the happy dance as that is another I've been looking for for a while and no where around here ever seems to have anything more interesting than the basics :) Anyone (close to my zone) grow Bay Laurel and can give me any idea of how big it will get? Is it a bush or a smallish tree? How long does it take to mature? I need to figure out where to put it . . . :)

Some of my herbs are planted in my garden with the veggies. Some are in containers. I will post a couple of pics. Note these pics are a week old. First pic of my raised bed. This year is lots of maters, and peppers. Some herbs planted in as well. Bottom right towards the middle is Greek Oregano. I started it in early Oct. from a Bonnie seedling. Two plants in 4 inch Jiffy pots. It has exploded in the past couple of weeks. I had to dig it out when I tilled in early Feb. It seems all that did to it was make it grow faster. Next in the dead center is a rosemary plant. Again another of the Bonnie Plants seedlings. It was 4 inches tall, and two and three quarter inches in girth of growth when I planted it in June of last year. Since then all I have done is raise it up when I tilled just as I did for the oregano. It is now just shy of two feet tall. I survived drought, frost, Ice, snow, and 5 hail storms to date. My soaker hoses go way far away from it. I leave it alone for the most part. I cut off a few sprigs when I wish to use it to cook with from time to time. In the top of the raised beds right corner is sweet mint. Left corner is orange mint. I keep them in the corners to keep them in check. If left unchecked they can take over yards, and gardens quick. Many like to plant them in a sunken pot. I keep them in check by cutting lots out. My wife loves mint tea, so I try to keep her in stock on mint. That means cutting out huge amounts. It is super easy to grow. All one needs to grow mint is a cutting, some dirt, and ability to water it.

Aloha David, Thanks for the lava rock "ladder" idea, we do have critters that will probably end up in there at some point. The chickens by accident and the border collies by choice, probably. I guess we will need "dog proof" water lilies. A fragrant lilly would be nice, perhaps some water grasses as well. I don't think the plantings will stay put, though, since there will be swimming dogs pushing them about so I was thinking a lot of the plants would be planted alongside the stock tank instead of directly in it. We don't have much "wild" fresh water, just the occasional stream that goes to the ocean so there aren't a lot of local freshwater fish. We do have lots of salt and some brackish water fishes. I was thinking guppies and koi to eat the mosquitoes. Hmm, maybe some prawns would work in the pond. I don't know if they eat mosquitoes, though. Does a water garden pond have to be drained every once in awhile? I'm thinking of either putting it up in the back of the yard by the shed where the bees can drink from it. I'm putting a lanai (porch) on the shed since it has a lovely ocean view. A nice water garden at the edge of the porch might be nice. The other option for the tank would be down the hill by the house. Just outside what will eventually be the dining room window. I could set it in the hillside and perhaps put a fountain from the hillside behind it into the tank. A wall "mask" fountain. The drain would be easier from the upper location, but we could use the tank fountain as the "diversion" load from our wind generator. (Sometimes we need to waste power when the wind blows too hard.)