I appreciate the garden compliments as I either love the garden, or just think it could be better. But it's all trial and error. I love vines for a more intimate setting. My back chain link has Algerian ivy on it from the woods. Not a good choice as its difficult to maintain but it gives that secret garden effect. I had an orange blooming Passion flower on the west side that was evergreen and did not freeze in winter. Cobaea vines like heat and are lush if happy. The flowers age from white to green to deep violet. Moon flowers smell divine but I cannot get any going here. Asarinas are pure magic and come in pink blue or white blooming varieties. I do have to water my garden as I did not plan for it to be dry for this drought. There are some pittosporums that grow narrow and tall and are great in containers like the one in this photo. And they have gothy black bark. I have golden bamboos in containers for architectural height and in my front garden, Mr. happy echiums that get a tall spire bloom up to fifteen feet tall. Two years to bloom but they do well in any soil. Firethorn can be espaliered. And bower vines are nice and lush if trimmed for fullness. And if you want to see some faery tale cottage gardens. Annie's Annuals here in Richmond has test gardens out of this world. Who gets delphiniums to grow blooms nearly 8 feet tall? They sell fantastic soil but I don't know what she is fertilizing their gardens with. Must be magic. Mr. Happy is a hybrid of theirs. I do have Alaska nasturtiums in. It does freeze here from the cold canyon air in winter so I will lose my tenders and my garden goes a bit dormant. Its nice that others are working on new gardens to see.

Ok, I'm not sure I am reading your diagrams correctly so bear with me if I'm way off base. But it appears to me you are wasting a lot of space with so many paths, and overly narrow paths at that, just to have so many different beds. So my first question would be why so many beds? More beds is not necessarily more productive or more useful than fewer but bigger beds would be. Is the E-W directional placement of the beds what is limiting you? If so, then that isn't any sort of absolute "law". Lots of gardeners use N-S beds quite successfully and they can be easy to compensate for the direction by arranging plantings and crop rotation. And it would appear that in your case using a N-S orientation would allow for a much more effective use of space. 3' or 4' wide beds that could be 12, 14, or even 18 feet long. For example using Version 7 diagram, one 3x14 foot long bed could abutt up to the patio edge on one side and you'd have a 3' path between it and the green tree band on the east. Follow m? 1' wide paths are basically useless for any practical purposes and 2' paths aren't much better. You'll live to regret those narrow spaces. So on the south side, if you feel you MUST run E-w then combine some of those many tiny beds into fewer larger ones OR make 2 N-S beds that are 4'x-24' long with 3 foot wide paths all around. Much less wasted space, more growing space, essentially the same amount of fill required, and I would argue more attractive than having a bunch of tiny little beds crammed together. Make sense? Dave

I agree that while the steps going off in all directions look great, they are extravagant. The porch is not big enough to do much more than be a landing, and a nice one I wouldn't want to do without. Since there are only 4 steps, consider dropping down to a patio that can handle all the activities you're interested in having. You might could eliminate a step by raising the patio slightly. A kneewall and a cheekwall could add a bit of overflow seating.

I drew the pumpkin in due to suggestion from members here. In my first rendition, I had been thinking patty pan or cupcake (another compact, small squash), and I probably continued to think that when I added it back to my second rendition despite drawing sugar pumpkins; a grid design in between omitted the squash plant in the L and had that length one foot shorter. I used square foot gardening assumptions in my layout, combined with my experience, which is almost entirely container based (so small). Here are my charts: Grid 1 (rectangle plan): ...... 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... 6 ... 7 ... 8 1 ... T ... T .. N ... E ... E ............ P/B . ........................................... P ............... 2 .. T ... T . O .. Sq . Sq ......... C ... C ..... N ... O O ................... P ............... 3 . St . St . St .. Sq . Sq . O ... B ... B Tomatoes get 1-4 sqft each (depending on type and support), eggplants get 1 sqft each (so actually allotted space for 2), peas and beans can have about 8-9 plants per sqft (I counted them as taking 2 spaces), strawberries can have about 4 plants per sqft, peppers get 1 sqft each, carrots and beets are 10-16 per sqft, and then squash I'm pretty sure will take whatever it can get, but wants at least a couple sqft. The onions and nasturtiums weren't really designed to have their own space ... though after subtracting off everything else, there would be about 3 sqft for them and open space throughout the garden. Grid 2 (L plan 1): ...... 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... 6 1 ... T ... T ... P ... P .... P/B . ................. O ......................... 2 .. T ... T .. B . B ... C ... C ......... O .... 3 .. E ... St 4 St .... St Same allotments as above, though only one eggplant space, and the onions don't have extra space to fill, they're just in there. Grid 3 (L plan 2): ...... 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... 4 ... 5 ... 6 1 ... T ... T ... P ... P .... P/B . ................. O ......................... 2 .. T ... T .. B . B ... C ... C ......... O .... 3 .. S ... S . 4 . E ..... M .......... E .... 5 M ...... M This one has the squash back in there, as discussed above. Eggplants are jammed two to the space, but I intended them to be Gretel and Fairy Tale, which are dwarf varieties, and it's just marigolds around the edge, so they could be skipped if it was really too tight. So there's the logic behind my madness ... I'd love to see some other suggestions that I could present along with these grids/pictures.