I have a circle bed (no fountain, tho), and I have agapanthas there. Yes, boring when not in bloom. So, this year I have added lots of bulbs to vary from spring to fall. Plant them on top of each other, with varying depths according to their size, and you should have some color there for most of the season. Or - if you want to continue with the mediterranean theme, how about lavender? I have some still blooming now and a mass planting could look beautiful. Or - you could plant a few small roses and lavender together. Lavender usually grows in sandy soil, not clay, but I bought some sandy soil to add to this particular bed and the lavender loves it. Or - go with prostrate rosemary. It should grow fine for you, stays short, creeps, is beautiful when in bloom, smells wonderful, and also goes with your theme. I think this could be your best choice. Good luck!

My son had some boat bottom paint so I picked the blue and green and went with that. Time will tell if it holds up. I have a large spindle that I could use, if I widdle on the end to fit in the plug hole. As suggested a piece of pipe would work too. I like the idea of the table, that would look better in the open spot I want to put this. I could change the place and set it among the tall flowers if I use a pipe.

I've read a couple articles on using newspaper for homemade Bokashi. Their methods entail using bought EM or making EM using the liquid from washing rice and some milk/yogurt and fermenting. Still seems that the methods start with aerobic bacteria being cultured into the newspaper. A lot of the posts I've read here warn about getting good air flow into your worm bin to keep it from going anaerobic. I'm thinking that you can create anaerobic conditions pretty easily. My thoughts are that the pouring the leachate into a sealed container of layered sheets of newspaper and letting it sit a couple weeks will generate the anaerobic bacteria I need for a Bokashi Bucket. Not sure though if the newspaper sheets should be dried out first or if I can just use them straight from this container into a Bokashi Bucket. My worm factory doesn't generate enough leachate to be very useful. From what I've been reading it's better to not let your bin get too soppy wet so I've been working at keeping enough cardboard pieces in there to soak up moisture. It sounds like a fun experiment anyway. I'm off to find an appropriate container to give it a go. Just want to see if anyone has tried this before. If this works well it's at least a good use for the small amount of leachate that my bin does produce and I can get rid of the kitchen garbage that I can't put in my worm bin.

I have done something similar to what brutuses is recommending. My room is smaller than yours, I think.. but it is long, has a fireplace on one end and a number of doors and windows that interrupt the walls. Similar to your room, the path to the bedrooms (upstairs in my case) is through the living room. So I have the fireplace on one end-- my sofa along the wall that would be equivalent to floating your sofa with its back to the kitchen pass through .. tv in between the sliding door (windows in my case) and the entry to the bedroom foyer (front door in my case). I think it works really well.. if needed, the fireplace seating can supplement the core seating-- and from the sofa, you can enjoy the fireplace and the tv... and you still have pretty decent walking paths through the room. You could probably set up a third little area on the far wall. Stereo and maybe books/reading chair or such. Something small but cozy. I am surprised your prints aren't working on the walls. Do you just need to get used to the color? What color frames? Good luck-- and enjoy your new home.