I posted the photos in the "Gallery" part of this forum, otherwise it would clog up the loading time on this post. They are listed under "Potager ideas." I love this style of garden but pretty much had to give it up in my small urban yard as the local vermin trash almost anything I plant. The bunnies even decimated my small blueberry bush. I am relegated to pots around the house that I can keep an eye on. Herbs are ok though, they don't mess with those. The squirrels bury nuts in the far away pots and throw dirt all over the paths, so I have even given up those! I envy you with the awesome fence! Check out information on companion planting, that will give you some ideas of what herbs and flowers and vegetables go together. There is lots about it on the Web and in books. There's little scientific evidence behind it, but it is the result of lots of people sharing some tried and true combinations that have worked for them. I have two books that I like on the garden design subject, one is "The Edible Garden" which is a Sunset book. The other is "Theme Gardens" by Barbara Damrosch. It has a layout for a children's garden in it that looks similar to what you have. But I am sure there are gads of cool picture books you could check out at the library or bookstore to give you ideas. In zone 6 you have a LOT of options!

I recently posted this picture in the Shade combo thread. I think the foliage of these hellebores looks good even without bloom. The foliage also holds well from spring to late fall - this area still looks just as fresh as the picture right now in late October. The Corsican Hellebore is iffy in my zone but does well in this sheltered location against the house wall. The leaves in the upper left are from a burning bush. Upper right and bottom right, fine deep green foliage is H. foetidus (Stinking Hellebore), it has upright limey yellow green colored blooms, like a stalk sticking straight up. Middle is H. argutifolia (Corsican Hellebore). It has serrated shiny green foliage with a somewhat yellow caste to it compared to the others and small lime green flowers above the foliage that show well. It grows much larger and taller than the other two. H. orientalis (Lenten Rose) has dark matte green foliage and flowers like the others in very early spring here after the foliage has taken a pretty bad beating from our winter. As a result the flowers are more prominent that you might think. I also cut out some of the bad looking foliage to show off the flowers. The foliage promptly grows back and looks good until snowed over. Closeup of angustifolius Closeup of flower on unnamed Lenten Rose in early spring

This year I found a 'maurelii' banana at the local nursery so have a couple along with my musa basjoos in pots and flower beds. I also found a musa zebrina (blood banana) but I really don't think it's liking full sun. Interesting though, there's an impatien plant in the same pot that's doing well in full sun. My cavendish banana from last year is indoors as a houseplant and seems to be doing much better, I guess it didn't really like full sun when it was outside. I bought an 'improved meyer' lemon and so far so good (nice growth). My spindle palm is about to open it's only new leaf of the summer. My bismarck and fan palm from last year are only former versions of themselves (from growing indoors in poor light for the winter) but are back outdoors and doing good. My latest thinking, with this cool summer, is to analyze tropical plants that seem to do good no matter what the summer. The moonflower, morning glory, persian shield, begonias, nicotiana, petunias and even easy-to-grow marigolds seem to be doing fine. I am coming to the conclusion that my mandevilla is growing so slowly that it's not really worth the effort especially in a cool summer. It's only two feet high and not really filling out a trellis. Every gardener can probably relate to planting something, giving it a prime location and hoping it makes a big impact, and then have it just sit there and do nothing. I also have my rubber plant growing outside for the summer and am trying a Wollemi pine - I just had to have it. Part of my thinking for this year was that summer, even when we have nice summers, are so short. Therefore for alot of my plants I started with ones growing in a pot (example morning glory) rather than start from seed. Happy tropical gardening, Glen

Hi, Alan.