Hi all!  I looking for a new element to add to our garden design.  We have 10 beds laid out in a parterre design with a long (32 foot) arbor down the middles, one long bed bordering each side of the arbor and ten beds (5 on each side) going around that.  In the past, all beds have been filled with perennials but that has become a maintenance nightmare.  This summer I am going to revamp the beds.  I will keep the two larger beds on either side of the arbor as perennial beds, as well as the four across the front that border the sidewalk/road as they are most commonly seen.  The other six I want to edge with short perennial herbs, (German winter thyme, winter savory, and maybe sage) in almost a hedge fashion and then wood chip the bed around the herbs and through the center of the bed.  My problem becomes what to put in the center.  We are on the ND plains where blistering sun and hot winds tend to dry out any planter you would put there.  Because of this, a single planter or group of planters is out, it would dry out faster than I could water.  Also can't really warm up to the idea of putting 'art' in there.  Sculpture, found objects, etc. can tend to look either messy or out of place because they are either too formal or too many when you have six beds to set.  Whatever it is needs to be planted in the ground.  I was thinking weeping caragana, dwarf Korean Lilac on a standard, pruned sculptural junipers (pom pom) or something along that nature.  Keep in mind, I need six and money and budget are tight - any exciting ideas on how to train a vine onto a structure, how to pick up an inexpensive shrub and prune it to shape - open to anything at this point.