Sitting in the bench, above, you'll see the house, below, a double axis.
Sitting in the bench, and looking right,
you'll see this axis, above. 
Rather a lot, above. Sometimes it's a single pot, but wow, in that single pot is something Of-The-Moment-Fabulous.
you must be able to sit in the bench
and see another focal point. Double Axis.
And I want to know the story!
Easy to maintain.
The art of living a Vanishing Threshold life.
The delicious book where I discovered this salient fact did not go further. Oh no. What shade of blue????????
Is this Monet's gardener's blue? Monet painting in his garden, by Renoir.
BONO GIRL was remodeling a ranch gettaway in Athens, GA when she asked for landscape help. Designing from Atlanta I knew to open her ranch. HOW? Use a round column + have a path to both sides of the landing + punctuate the stone wall with a low column + low iron urn with curves on column (not sourced yet) + curve the turf. 
Vanishing Threshold, above. Can't wait for the plants to fill-in between the paths.
BONO GIRL invited me to her gettaway. Forget the landscape, her dogs were the focal point. 
A Craftsman bungalow, frontyard & backyard, are both blessedly small.
LOVE BOAT significantly enlarged their original Craftsman bungalow keeping the front architecture intact. He, of LOVE BOAT, grew up in this home. His parents, from Cuba, still live here. He & She of LOVE BOAT are in food sales, working from a home office.
Keep walking, oh girl of little patience. Love the house, above, contrasting forms of plants (Cone, box, horizontal, weeping, oval), contrasting foliage colors (burgundy, greens, blue), late summer blooms (crape myrtle, rose of sharon)
10 steps after wondering where the focal point was. The garden spoke.
Then I wondered, WHY 2 FOCAL POINTS ? 
In addition to volunteering to caretake the grounds Sandra started school & completed The Certificate of Landscape Design from Radcliffe College. Then moved to Atlanta.
Sandra, living in an Atlanta rental, searched 4 yrs for a historic home. And began her landscape design business, Recreating Eden Landscape Design. Her drive, above, in Hogansville, GA.
Nearly pristine, Hamilton House is circa 1844. The granite step, above, is from a home built during the Revolutionary War. I met Sandra when she took my class, Plant ID, at the local college. 
In front, above, Sandra kept the original meadow. Adding only a few hollies for blocking a road view and thousands of daffodils from abandoned homesites. Daffodils she purchased, died.
Original walls, above, 29 layers of paint removed. Sandra says, "I cannot explain how blessed I feel living here. It is humbling to know I am the steward for now. The house will go on. I will not. I feel an obligation not to change too much and pass it on to another generation historically intact."
"The house needed me to make its garden. Hope I can finish It!"
Carelessly, Sandra said, "As an aside, I started my Camellia Walk as a nice way to get to the compost area in the winter. The rest of the garden fell into place." She should have included knowing to design in axis, focal points, evergreen structure, color, line, form, texture.
Laughingly Sandra asked me if I saw, above, her lovely statue on a plinth. Until it's funded the birdbath is makin' do.
Curving off, above, from the main path, a stroke of genius, another path and a peek at the house.
See the upside down pot? St. Francis, above, is using it as a plinth. "I don't know that I have a design trick," Sandra says, "but I do find that a sharp edge between border & turf goes a long way to define a space. No matter what is planted in the border the eye is drawn to the line and leaves the calm impression of order."
A new area in the potager, above. How does Sandra design? "I always begin a landscape by carving out the different areas the client requires: a place for family gatherings, a place for the dog, an outdoor dinning area, a quiet private place for restful contemplation, a place to grow herbs for the kitchen & etc. Later these areas tell me what plants are required. If a dinning area happens to be in hot sun (because it is close to the kitchen) trees will be required for shade (or an arbor). Each area is then treated as a 'garden.' Fragrance is always important and adds yet another invisible element to the design."
A special place for the cats Sandra has lost, above, each with a cat headstone.
And a place Sandra likes to sit with her current cats & chickens.
In exchange for honey Sandra lets a beekeeper keep hives in her garden. OMG, you can taste Sandra's garden in her honey.
Sandra's plant combinations, textures-colors, are a delight.
Looking into the garden, below, from the back of her home, are bits of the potager, fruitery and pleasure walk.
See the ladder, above, it's leaning into a fruiting fig. Yes, I ate all I could grab and she sent me home with fig preserves.
True to her Montreal roots, Sandra adores France. While on a garden study tour in France she found the doorknocker, below, now at her backdoor.
"On Gardening", Sandra said, "My advice to a beginner is READ. READ. READ!! Quality garden authors are invaluable. Attend lectures & symposiums. Volunteer at a Botanical Garden, they need the help and they will teach you. Go on every garden tour possible. Sign on to a master gardener program. Get a good horticulture dictionary, Wyman's or Hortus 3rd."
Sandra told me to bring an empty basket. You see, above, what she had waiting for me.
Sandra's landscape designs, SEJonas@bellsouth.net, have been on tours and in articles. 
Ha, garden fully for yourself and you'll attract children.
Children easily recognize pandering, patronizing & pitiful. 
