I'm afraid Martha would be tempted to slap me silly if she ever saw my gardens...

Another tip for making people think your garden is very well tended... only post photos of the (probably small) areas that really are! No one need know that a foot away there are more weeds than garden plants...

Aha--so THAT'S what macro lenses are for!

Speaking of Martha and garden planning. I just watched this short video, and I thought it was pretty good. Short, but I did like how she dug out the paths, I have always gone the opposite direction and added to the beds, but I like her idea. Also thought her idea of marking the bed with lime was nice, and her drawings looked really simple and like something any of us could do.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Larry, I particularly like the idea of digging the paths down and then mulching them, too -- I think I'll try that this year, although my veg garden beds are still going to be humdrum rectangles and not fancy shapes... Like the idea of using the lime for marking, too -- I've seen a tip for using the chalk that comes in a squeeze bottle (sold at a hardware store, like you would use for a "chalk line"), but I'm sure it would be much cheaper to buy a bag of lime if you're doing any amount of marking at all.

I usually dig down around a raised bed, to add drainage and aeration. (My base "soil" is near-pure clay, and my amended soil is something like "clayey clay clay soil".)

This also makes weeding easier, since I can stand down in the ditch and bend over less to reach the raised bed surface. In the deepest walkway, from certain angles, with a few plants growing, my neighbors only see me from the chest up!

The soil I dig out of the walkways/trenches eventually winds up back in a raised bed, after screening and amending and incubating with compost. In fact, usually the raised bed got "total soil replacement" since I removed all of it for screening and extensive amendment, then wheelbarrow-ed it back.

I just wish I had 5 times as much compost!

My garden is pretty much determined by what survives the winter,
and which seedlings have become viable for transplanting out.
In September I drew a grand master plan so I could order seeds to fit the spaces.
But some will do better than others, and so plans change to take advantage of
the seedlings which are ready in spring.
And sometimes I can get inspired by something totally different in spring!

I have to accept the weather limitations in my garden..with our ongoing drought, got to find drought tolerant bloomers..thankfully some succulents do bloom nicely. We have intense dry summer heat here too so to plant flowering plants, will be a fortune in watering costs..plus my location is so shaded at times when the trees are out, so full sun conditions not good.

So I just admire all the other flower plant growers here..while I hunt for more succulents. Or I try to go for indoor growing and blooming plants..orchids..hoyas..clivias.