Not sure what to do with that clump of dirt that you thought would make a great garden? Try adding a theme to it.

Theme gardens are a way to add interest to your landscape while expressing yourself creatively. They can also provide a local "escape" to your favorite vacation place. And for some, they're a reflection of values.

Take, for instance, my beachy lighthouse garden, pictured here with my bichon-mix Bailey. I have always had a love for the shore and chose to add the lighthouse to a troubled spot in my garden. There used to be a beautiful Japanese flowering cherry tree at this spot. Shortly after our beloved Rudy (a maltese) passed away, the tree died too. We like to think that Rudy took the tree with him, as under it was his favorite spot to sit in the yard.

After adding the lighthouse, we planted ornamental grasses and surrounded it with Malibu gold stones to suggest that "beach" feeling. We added a spotlight to highlight the lighthouse at night (it also has a bulb in the windows at the top). I love to sit on our patio and look out at the lighthouse. It reminds me of my favorite vacation spot.

We have mostly shade along the back end of our yard. So after losing 23 8-ft. tall Arborvitae during a drought a few years ago, we built our two shade gardens. And I, like many of you out there, had taken to collecting Boyd's Bears ... so after the company started making lawn ornaments out of them, I had to get a few.

At first I scattered them all throughout the yard, but last year, I decided to concentrate them all in our longer shade garden and voila - the Teddy Bear garden was created.

When creating your theme garden, don't just think of the plants, add statues, a bird bath, small stones, bigger stones, gravel, pavers or even sand - it's up to you. Even old broken lawn ornaments can add interest. Turn something on its side ... I have a friend who picked up an old push-mower at a yard sale, painted it bright colors and put it in the middle of his garden. It looks whimsical. You might also want to include lighting in your plan, it'll make the garden intersting at night too.

At yet another end-of-summer sale I purchasedd a Buddha statue, so I had to create a Zen garden to go along with him. I chose the spot under the arbor we had erected two years before. It was always a pain to mow around the posts of the arbor, so with a couple of bags of river rock and some retaining wall blocks to hold it all in, the Zen garden came to life.

I don't know if I've ever confessed this here, but my whole motivation for starting the gardens in the first place was less grass to mow! We do have less, and hopefully, there will be even less in the future. You don't have to do everything all at once. Just add something new each year and before you know it, you'll have a garden to be admired!

Look for Theme Gardens Pt. 2 tomorrow.

In my garden, the surest sign that Spring has sprung, is when I deem the weather is good enough to bring out the lighthouse! This past weekend, the newly-refurbished lighthouse made its debut.

OK, if I can back it up a few years ... about five years ago, when my gardening habit started, my family surprised me with the lighthouse. I always wanted one, but never really had any place to put it. We had a beautiful Japanese cherry tree that was a big focal point in our yard and it had just died.

So, one thing led to another and I constructed a whole new garden and put the lighthouse where the tree used to be (spotlighted at night, of course). I love to see it out in the yard, it reminds me of the seashore.

Nothing lasts forever, and the lighthouse started showing wear from the elements. To tell the truth, we decided to sand and paint it over the 2006-2007 winter, but I only got around to it this past Easter!

Oh well, no harm done, and I think it looks great, back in its place of honor, overseeing the rest of the garden path. What do you think?

Update: My ambitious weekend plans went pretty well. The weather was great and the garden beds are all ready for planting! The compost was tended and turned (still nothing ready to spread on the beds yet, but that didn't stop my bichon Bailey from climbing into the bin and rolling in the fresh coffee grounds -- Ugh!) The patio is clean and the furniture is ready too.

I still didn't start my seeds yet, and I have a new plastic greenhouse to put together (don't get too excited, it's just a small thing I got at Lowe's last weekend).

I also got an email from Breck's confirming shipment of my perennial order! I can't wait!

Just a quick note to everyone... HGTV had an interesting show on last night -- "25 Biggest Landscape Mistakes".

If you missed it, you can get the tips at HGTV.com/landscapemistakes

Check it out, it's pretty insightful if you're just starting out or even if, like me, you already have an established landscape. I must admit, I'm guilty of at least 7 of them. We'll get into that later ...

Oops, I misidentified one of my grasses in a previous blog last week. The Maiden Grass I claimed grew to have 12-ft. plumes was actually Ravena Grass. Maiden Grass doesn't get bigger than 5-6 ft. I don't have any Maiden Grasses, but the Ravena Grass in full plumage is truly a sight to behold!

Here it is from a previous year's garden. It's the tall grass to the immediate right of the lighthouse.