In April, 1999 we used plastic nursery pots to see if a corner of the patio would be good spot to build more planting beds. It looked good to us so...

...in 2000, we decided to build a five-section planter with a water feature.

The challenge was to construct it as one piece, rather than building five boxes and slapping them together.

After creating the design in Visio, we finally had to build a 3-D scale model to make sure that all the measurements and pieces were correct.

We built it out of salvaged old-growth redwood that is a true 2" thick.

Yes, the herbs need trimming...

...and if you look in the center, you'll see some river rocks that are part of the water feature that is detailed below...

We picked up the rocks from a quarry just outside of Yosemite, on a return trip from the park.

• We asked the quarry workers how much they wanted for some rocks. In response they asked us to take as much as we could--GRATIS!
• They were quarrying sand and the rocks were in the way!
• So we loaded up our van until we didn't dare add more. (We didn't want to break the shocks.)

We also found some space between the kitchen door and the chimney, so we just had to fill it.