Many of the things I have done with this garden have seemed slightly (ahem) obsessive. I'm always trying to decide exactly which one qualifies as the winner. This picture certainly shows a contender. As I said, I like plants hanging over things, and I like stairs, and well, two years ago, I just didn't have any of either. My solution, which seemed reasonable enough at the time, was to dig out one part of the lawn, and pile up the dirt on the other part, and so, to have two levels. This amounted to a really insane amount of digging. I worked about 5 or 6 hours a day for a week or two to achieve the two levels (a tractor wouldn't fit in our backyard). My parents were a little unnerved at the time, especially considering there was no nice flagstone wall...only two dirt levels. At any rate, it has given the space some much needed definition, and it has given me my precious stair. The evergreen in the background is a blue spruce. The leaves at the right belong to the pumpkin patch. And the miniature trees on either side of the step are dwarf Alberta spruce.
So, I did all that work...step down please.