This posting will be extra annoying if you’re sneaking a peak at it while holed up in a dusty office cubicle. That’s because I thought it would be fun to serve up some eye candy of lovely places to kick back and do nothing while soaking up the relaxing greenness of a garden courtesy of houzz.com, that addictive homestyle site.

There are some great ideas for making your own secret retreat even if the space you’ve got to work with is sunken–as in the area right outside a basement door. Making the walls surrounding the area into “a cabinet of curiosities” filled with alien-looking cacti and succulents is brilliant. And it’s a reminder that you don’t need a picture-postcard landscape to find a small piece of summer paradise.

Just pull a chair closer to some potted plants or a tree in the corner of your backyard or park and say “Ahhhhhhhh”.