Here is a picture of my veggie garden. I have raised beds made out of recycled pavers. Here is a link that might be useful: more pictures of my garden

And on the other side of the pathway...Bridegroom, Fried Green Tomatoes, Blue Angel, Reptilian, Inniswood, Yellow Splash Rim, Tokudama Flavocircinalis and Aureomarginata, Jack of Diamonds, American Sweetheart.... This bed was started just last year. Bought the largest plants I could find! Still some work to do at the top of the hill, needs clearing out of poison ivy, wild honeysuckle, other vines, etc.

eliza_824 wrote: "Well, pictures from our little humble home are going to look pretty contrasting compared to...." I say DITTO. Eliza, You have wonderful color and beautifully laid out! But I'm going to steal your words quoted above after seeing all these spectacular gardens....obviously created with pride and lots of love. Here I thought I had some colorful surroundings, some not-so-average ideas and ....then I saw all these pictures, drooled, and then had second thoughts about sharing pics of my little piece of Humble Haven. I THANK EVERY ONE OF YOU who have shared pics/links of your beautiful surroundings, your pics....each one...have inspired me, left me jaw-dropped, made me smile with their color and given me more ideas! I'm in Southern California so most of the pics were taken within the last week...except for the "before" pics in the album linked below. All pics in album have explanations. Here is a link that might be useful: More Back Yard Pics

Heere another favorite Flower Girl this one I got from Amity's Roses back when they were an all own root nursery. I've it for 12 years or more. In all that time she has never had a spot or mildew also apparently immune to anthracnose. She is normally a bit more upright I gave her too much nitrogen last year. Also spent to much time growing rather than flowering as much as normal. Won't do that again. Next to her is one of several gladiolus that I have had nearly as long. This is it's third time moved. Moved it right before our first wretched polar vortex winter and it lived. These are summer glads that should not be even close to hardy, I never dig them up to store them. They always come back even when the ground freezes below the bulb. Trust me here as it turns out glads have an amazing survival skill. I dug a clump a few years ago as it wasn't performing like it should. Well it was a giant stack of bulbs. When the bulb froze it would grow a new one on top so there was always the top couple still producing green leaves. Maybe glads always grow this way I don't know. All I need to do is take off the top bulb and replant about 8 inches deep and its starts the whole again. It was a stack of ten bulbs. One for each year it was planted. Sorry that was so long especially if you don't like glads.