This picture is a view from the West end of Island Bed 1.
To the left you will see links to plants featured that are in this particular bed.

We formed 2 Island beds when we built our patio.  The patio is large and surrounds 2 beds within it.  We used a two foot square form called a "walkmaker" to build the patio.  My husband and I did the work all by ourselves.  It took quite some time.   

We began by removing all of the grass with a sod lifter.

Then we began laying the cement in the form

until it was all down

Then we began working the beds

We built a trellis out of old landscape timbers and lattice

And this is what it looked like by the end of the summer.  This view was taken from an upstairs window.