Try posting this in the Landscape Design forum. You'll get better help there.

Visit the blog www.livinginyellow.com. She is a fashion blogger and has a great in-ground pool area that is decorated with practical, comfortable and cute furnishings! I promise if you search through her photos, you'll get some inspiration ideas. She's also pretty good about posting where she buys from!

You are getting there :-)) You will have an entirely different perspective once you get the black pots elevated. And you can always add more color with flowering plants. What happened to the white/cream colored containers? You could mix them in with the black ones to make more of a statement. The pots in the middle photo (mostly blue tones) are still too lined up. btw, the groupings do not need to be equal in impact or quantity :-)

Agree about the tilling....not an effective method to get rid of weeds :-) In fact, disturbing or turning the soil generally just exposes more seeds so increases weed germination and can distribute perennial weeds like dandelion or dock across a much greater expanse (they will grow from any part of root left in place). Using a herbicide is really the most effective and efficient solution. As to 'destroying the soil', that can happen with all manner of substances including the overapplication of any synthetic fertilizer product. But it is a temporary condition at best - soil biology regenerates at an extremely rapid rate if organic matter is present and most herbicides breakdown or degrade very rapidly once in the soil. One can seed after using glyphosate as quickly as 3 days.