Juliann, I'll post a site from the UK that has pictures of various types of gardens. This link goes to their Cottage Garden which they say is "contrived to look uncontrived". There are many other types of gardens there that might provide inspiration. Which plants you choose depends on which climate zone you are in. I'm in zone 3 so am somewhat limited in what I can grow. I'll post a pic of what I call my wild bird garden. It's an area in my large garden that has the birdfeeder and birdbath. I allow the flowers to go to seed for the birds so they self-seed. This area has changed over many years altho I initially seeded shasta daisies (the butterflies love them) and yarrow and planted a few established perennials. The yarrow seeds I planted were a mix of red, pink, and white, but the white resembles the wild yarrow we have so we pull it out and it's mostly now only tones of pinks and red. There are also Lamb's Ears because they seed all over my garden but I leave them in this wild area (the bees love them). There are a few other plants, a pink mallow that's 'weedy' but it fills the space and is quite pretty and we also have several lilacs here. Near that area there is also a drift of common old irises which we've allowed to spread. They are in the lower part of the rockery and I will eventually weed some of them out as the bloom time is not very long. If I were deliberately planting a wildflower garden I would not buy a wildflower mix as there could be invasive plants in it. I planted a mix about 14 years ago and still have Dame Hesperis (Dame's Rocket) altho pull out many every year and try to dead-head them ASAP before they seed. It's quite a weed in warmer climates. I would choose seeds of plants I like that are hardy but not invasive and mix them together. Another option is to plant in swaths with various plants and grasses hardy to your area. Keep in mind the moisture requirements of the plants as you decide. The area where I have shastas, mallow, and yarrow needs little watering and only a spring weeding so is easy care. Here is a link that might be useful: The Garden House

Thanks for your great input. I set up a shop light (2 "sunshine" fluorescent lights) over a shelf this weekend. Then tested this out by placing a new potted AV I purchased randomly at Home Depot under the light. Window blinds closed so no sunlight was hitting the plant. After leaving the plant under here for two days (12 hours of artificial light each time) there is no sign of any damage using this method. This turned out to be the perfect solution. No dying or wilting AVs now! If that plant is doing fine right now, I think I can actually move forward with indoor lighting. So this is all great news. I had no idea there was a Phoenix AV club and I will investigate this. Maybe they have a show or sales. Though Phoenix is still a 3 hour drive from me! Kind of easy scanning eBay for the huge selection and convenience of shopping at 3 a.m.! What an addiction.

Francoise47 - I LOVE Tinker's kitchen. Drool! Those look so nice and simple yet elegant in her kitchen but yes I agree about cleaning them. I don't think I'm willing to do that. I also don't find blinds to be all that user-friendly. Things always seem to go wrong with me and blinds! CEFreeman - I don't see the Lowe's link (?) but I can google it now that I know the location, thanks! I think a valance would block too much light, but the strip of horizontal wall color just above the windows acts sort of like a valance-of-sorts actually! The paint color is Benjamin Moore's Fieldstone a.k.a. Fieldstone gray. Thanks! Lake Girl - thanks for the positive feedback and sorry I didn't see (or don't remember) an old link in which you asked about the tile. I wanted something that was white and cheerful though had a little bit of gray and tan in it so I could warm up the coldness of the stainless countertop (and so I could have both warm or cool colors in the kitchen in general). Hence, calacatta. It was a PITA (although at times sorta fun) and here's what I did: I bought 12" x 12" pieces of calacatta marble from a local stone and tile business. I then called around and found a good fabricator to hone and cut the tile into 2x6" pieces. THEN I pulled out all pieces that were either too dark or busy or too plain white (although I did throw in the occasional plain white piece here and there to keep the backsplash from being too busy looking) and then I had what was left installed! OY! Not quite as easy as stopping by Lowe's, eh?! :: Funny thing was, when the guy was done installing the tile, there was almost no pieces (of the good stuff) left! So it turns out that I ordered the exact right amount since wasting the other pieces couldn't be helped. I can no longer remember the grout color but if you google my name along with the name gardenweb and type in something about grout color, it might pop up. I'm not crazy about the light gray color and wish I'd gone with white but oh well. I don't dislike it that much. I wonder if I could sell the left over pieces. I don't think anyone else would want gaudy pieces either though - especially in those less common dimensions. Thank you!

Mike, I'm not joking but I'm not being entirely serious either. If you can't use wild hyperbole in an internet comment where can you? I thought my point was pretty clear but I'll try and rephrase. Plants have been growing on their own for millions of years without a human nanny. Their needs are pretty simple: temperature, water, nutrients (mostly nitrogen) and sunlight. If you provide that in the correct amounts they can pretty much handle themselves. Container plants might need some extra care but hundreds of thousands of them are grown and thrive each year in nurseries and stores with pretty much the same basic requirements. The guy comes down the rows with a water wand, probably laced with some liquid fertilizer, they stand in the sun, they grow and flourish, no human hovering required. Give your plants the basics. (Edit: I'm not talking to you personally here Mike but to the general audience.) Learn how to tell when you're watering too much or too little. Learn how much light your plants need and recognize that even a bright room is magnitudes darker than open shade outside. Learn what the fertilizer requirements are for your plant and soil and provide what it needs. Don't obsess over NPK numbers that have small variations, a few percentages are not going to make any difference. If you want to buy expensive, exotic fertilizers with untested claims online go ahead and waste your money, but something generic on sale at Walmart is going to do the same. You might have to spray if pests get out of control but a few chewed or wrinkled leaves are part of nature. Once you do that just let them grow, then take a walk, play some golf, read a book, learn how to graft, do something else and just let them grow. Most of them, including citrus, are tougher and more self reliant than you would ever guess if all you read were internet gardening fora.