I doubt that I'm ever going to convince many/any of you that straighter lines are good - or any of you conivince me that wavy lines are best! To each his own is the conclusion I think:-) Karin - From the deck, or in the space, the lines of the first of laag's drawings would still be what pleases me most. That gently rounded quasi-rectangular lawn is a shape I like (you might remember I have a rather larger version of that in my backyard!) and I can 'feel' myself moving easily along the path around the tree and to the front yard. I just think that flows better... v1rtu0s1ty - when I mean straight lines when there are planting beds, that what I 'see' - i.e. the edges are naturally softened by plants spilling over during the growing season. But the clear lines are still there guiding you deep into the garden and will still be making a strong statement in the off-seasons when the plants are not visible or less showy. sleepy - sorry, but I prefer the straight path version :-) If I'm going from point A to point B, I prefer to get there along the shortest path (which is a straight line). If there's no reason for a wiggle, it annoys me to have to follow that longer path. With a nice planting, a straight path doesn't have to be unattractive. I've posted this picture here before - straght path along the north side of our house - June 2009:

Holley, people ARE scared to grow roses. I have 85 or so at work and get asked CONSTANTLY about how much time I spend (mostly I water and I deadhead when I do it, spray once in a while and fertilize two or three times a year at the most) and cannot believe I don't hire it out to someone.....I DO hire out the grass but not the roses! I have people here who come in ans say they have had problems, cant grow them, killed them etc and mine are growing away.

I'm with Rob about the burying of rocks, I would like to add that if the rock has a rounded side and a flat side, setting the flat side down usually looks more natural, and the rock won't need to be buried quite as much, but so much depends on the types of rocks. You can use different types of rocks and mix the grain if you want to make the garden look more like an old flood area where the stones were brought together by water flow. This is how my most recent rock garden was designed, although the colors and textures were similar. The only type of fence structure I like in my gardens is the 4" round or square posts set upright, side-by-side, at differing lengths, but it stays low, no higher than 24", and tends to meander. I would have had some pictures of this last garden to show, but ding-a-ling me took pix with no film in the camera, but I have some other rock gardens on my Webshots albums, these made with our local limestone. Here is a link that might be useful: My Gardens and More

Hmmmm, I'm going to look up the link to skylight covers in a sec. Interesting. But if Steph is thinking of making her own, it isn't that difficult, you know. The Home Depot sells 100 foot rolls of what is called SHADE CLOTH. I bought a roll of it intending to make roman shades from it, but DH opted to have plantation shutters installed here in Alabama like the ones I persuaded him to install up in Massachusetts. He really likes them. Now, I will probably use the shade cloth to make a cover outdoors for my shade loving hosta that I've gone nuts over. I have two roll up shades made of it on the totally Lexan walled sun porch, and it truly cuts the heat down, plus like Shelayne says you can see through it looking out. You don't want to put a shade on the INSIDE of your skylights Steph, because in AZ what you have is radiant heat, which will come in regardless of you stopping the LIGHT, if you don't stop it on the outside to keep the glass from heating up and transmitting/radiating the heat inward. If those purchased skylight covers can be bungeed into place, then you can see about making them yourself....or maybe ask your SISTER to sew them up for you? Are you handy with the sewing machine? Didn't we just chat about that sitting unused in most of our homes? Well, think about running a few flat hems easy as making a towel, threading the bungee through the hem, and get some young buck of an Arizona cowboy to climb up there on your roof and install it for you. Isn't your neighbor's boy big enough to help you do that? Think about it, Steph. You get the shade, and still have the light. It will make a difference.