Cactus Joe, I too am interested in your rock/water feature. It's very beautiful! Did all those smaller rocks come from your yard too? Do you get a lot of wildlife visiting this area? I don't know what I would do over. My gardens here at this house (oldest bed is 4 years old) are constantly changing. I think a great deal about the "bones" of my borders, which consist of shrubs and small trees, and a few large grasses and perennials. What to plant, where to put them. I take into consideration sun, soil, moisture, privacy and wind screen, wildlife value, native range, etc. Even so, I've moved and changed the bones! Last year I moved the Miss Kim Lilac over 5 feet. Dug out a forty year old Burning Bush and replaced it with a gorgeous Amelanchier. This year the Viburnum dentatum is being moved - because it's just gotten too big for it's location. The only thing growing in this yard that isn't subject to change are the established trees - kinda hard to move a 50 year old tree (however I've removed some of them, namely scraggly pines and Norway maples). It seems to be the nature of gardening and creativity - continually creating something new! I'm pretty comfortable with that.

Any one living near the Huntington Gardens be sure to visit the new Childrens Garden. They have a large cement bowl of sand that has a lot of iron ore inside, beach sand has Iron ore. They also have a large magnet to gather it up. Children can play with this by the hour. They have a pebble stream, a fog forest. A TeePee make believe, fake Ravens sitting on the bench, I rainbow tunnel, many other clever things for children to explore. Visit and it will give you some great ideas. I wish I could come and help you with your garden. Use a lot of bushes with texture. Pansy's for color, miniature persimmons, miniature Peaches to be picked. Bean Poles shaped like a TeePee for the beans to climb, and Tomato cages to keep them off the ground, the more you plant up, the more room you will have, peas climb up, Japanese egg plant takes little room, and you can eat them. Stubby carrots are great tiny and grow in poor soil and pots. My children's garden was all in pots set in space on the driveway that wasn't used for other things, miniature tomatoes in 3 gal containers and Luffa sponge in 5 gal. clay pots. A row of pot for herbs, I had a weeping willow bottle brush tree, hummingbirds just loved visiting. Miniature squash, which grows fast in a five gallon glay container, and up a tomato cage, and the old standby a row of radishes with germinates in three days. Have the childen make a scarecrow with your help of course. I started growing food at four and a half. Be sure to tuck in some parsley and rosemary for you. A large tall Sunflower plant, one is plenty and grows tall about (8ft). It will attract birds. Gourds, grow up and make a fine trellis plant for a lath house. Just ideas, Norma

Do you not want it all the same? Thats what I would do with that space. If you want difference you could define space with different coordinating accent pieces of whatever you choose. I think you will get much more cohesiveness and a better feeling with one color.

There's a reason that greige colors like Revere Pewter and Edgecomb Gray are so popular. LOTS of people have both warm and cool colors in their rooms. Few of us get to start from scratch and most people need to find a way to combine existing non-changeable finishes (floors, cabinets, countertops), plus furniture they already have. Often that's a mix of warm and cool colors. The greige colors look good with both, and when you add or remove something from the mix, it all still works together. You may find that with a new wall color that your existing trim, kitchen counter etc. look just fine.