I have a 1 acre lot in Jefferson Country, Colorado, surrounded by the city of Arvada. In it, I have multiple gardens which vary greatly from water gardens to xeric, shade to full sun. Some are dedicated to one type of flower and some are mixes. Often there are edibles mixed with ornamentals..

Here's a recent picture of one of the terraces. It changes quite a bit through the seasons. Right now the irises are done and daylilies are mostly done and the dahlias are hiding the alpine and succulent bed up top. As you can tell, my lawn is a bit brown. We are in a severe drought and the lawn is my lowest priority. I've found it always comes back once we get some rain.

It is beautiful Tabby. Can't wait to see more photos of your wonderful gardens.

Love the multi level flower bed. Are those nasturtiums at the front border? Cool fence in the background.

Looks like nasturtiums to me, too! Love those little rascals! And I love the stone raised beds! Sigh, wish I could afford to do mine in those lovely stones. Very nice!

This time of year is the best time to shop for the stone, my Lowes usually have them about 1/2 price about now or a bit later in fall. And if you buy 10-12 at the time and start piling them up it is not quite so pricey.

Tabby, great job! Send more pictures!

Woofie, I'm collecting the local shale rocks for my raised beds, So far, I really only have the outline, bottom, layer. But I find 'em where I find 'em and toss them in the back of my truck! Don't know if the kind of rocks you have there would be stackable, but it's a free (except for the lifting and carrying) alternative.

Oh, we have LOTS of rocks! Ha! Just try putting a shovel in the ground around here! Oh, here's one sitting next to our Great Pyr:

Love the doggie - tell me about him/her!
You can do that over here:
http://cubits.org/ACuriousCubi...
If you want to.

Yup, those are nasturtiums. I thought the bees would love them but they mostly ignore them.
The "stone" are those cement blocks called Windsor stone, which we got at one of the big box stores. 15 pallets!!!

Here's the other half back in the 1990s when it was being built - you can see the structure better.



And here's a shot from last fall that shows more of it.

Wow, That looks like it was a lot of work. I love the curves and different levels. Very nicely done

I thought that was what those stones were! And those pictures just make me drool more. Gonna short out my keyboard! Love the curves and multi-levels! YUM!

All the above. Tabby those planters are just beautiful.

Tabby, what a wonderful garden, I love all those levels, what I wouldn't give for a bit of topography, my land is all flat as a board. No hills at all, and no stones. Just flat sandy soil.

Thanks!
We terraced that hill partly because we didn't like riding the lawn tractor on it and almost tipping over.

Here's a little garden in an odd little corner that we didn't know what to do with.
The Windsor stone wall is almost hidden right now by the plants. There's some purple morning glory blooming, but later there should be mostly Heavenly Blue morning glory. I think it's taller than it looks here.

Everything in your garden tour looks wonderful. So lush and full, know you have worked hard on all of it.

This corner arrangement is another great way to fill a corner.

Thanks for sharing

Tabby, absolutely gorgeous. Love the structure.
Looks like an A/C unit to the far right, so (obviously ) grasses or anything that seeds and sheds would be bad. For the ground around the morning glories, have you thought about or tried herbs like creeping rosemary or thymes? Texture, not a lot of height, and manageable growth.

I think that's one of our rain barrels.

It's a strange little space stuck between the patio and our grape vine. It used to collect junk until we cleaned it up and put in this little raised garden. The ground around the little morning glory garden is covered in mulch and flagstone since we have to get in there and move around quite a bit.
Here's the grape directly to the right of it. We got 7 large bowls of grapes from it this year and there are now six gallons of wine bubbling away from those grapes.

If you want something greeny and low maintenance instead of the mulch around the flagstones, could use something like Gypsophila repens Rosea (Pink Creeping Babys Breath), Silene acaulis (Moss Campion), Thymus Albiflorus (White Creeping Thyme), or Mazus reptans Alba. All are low-growing, grow in Zone 5, are supposed to tolerate being stepped on two or three times a day, and don't require a lot of water.