A 40-foot-long pergola organizes the sunny part of the garden, anchored at one end by an arbor holding a bench swing.

Vi grew up gardening in Port Angeles, then aimed at a career in real estate. Clients and friends admired Vi's garden so much they started asking her to design theirs, and she ended up transforming gardens rather than selling houses. Her own poorly planted two acres provided the ultimate challenge.

Nine years later, the garden's grim beginnings are nowhere in sight. A big, muddy corner of the front lawn is now a pond with a waterfall. A naturally occurring stream of water keeps the area so moist the pond doesn't require a liner. A pump channels the water to run down the waterfall, then recycle for a continuous gush. The Konos rimmed the pond with rock, planted hosta and astilbe to soften the edges, and built a little dock. A snapshot of this area would be a perfect July calendar page, summoning up quintessential summer with dock, lawn, water and two Adirondack chairs for lounging about. Not that the Konos necessarily have much chance for that, with their intensely planted two acres of ornamentals and vegetables as well as a greenhouse to contend with.

'Bright Lights' Swiss chard livens up the ornamental vegetable garden.

Vi Kono loves the change that perennials bring to the garden, but she carefully threads them through the shrubs that provide winter structure and interest, such as purple-leafed smokebush and barberry.

Vi has taken advantage of such a large canvas by creating a series of distinct gardens, styled to the conditions of the site and the purpose of the space. Across from the broad front lawn is a woodland area where she grows shade plants beneath sturdy, spreading cedars and tall Douglas firs. In early spring the mouse plant (Arisarum proboscideum) is a star, with brown "tails" up to 7 inches long protruding above glossy leaves, looking as if a family of mice is not-so-cleverly hidden beneath. Actually, this unusual aroid is mimicking a fungus, both with its smell and with a white spongy appendix that looks exactly like the underside of a fungus. The point of all this subterfuge is to attract female fungus gnats to pollinate the plant.

The taller trees in the woodland are underplanted with the small and graceful deciduous tree Styrax obassia, which flourishes in near-total shade. Its large, pale green leaves show off clusters of white dangling flowers in June. Shuttlecock ferns line the woodland paths, along with a collection of more than 70 hostas, many variegated to reflect any light that makes it through the trees.

A main path from the woodland garden leads past an arbor housing a tempting bench swing, and around the house to a sunnier side of the garden. Here wide borders hold an array of perennials and small shrubs anchored by a long curve of pergola draped in vines. Despite the wide variety of flowers, the underpinning here is shrubs, which keep the garden going through the seasons. Vi uses shrubs to give volume to the garden, support the herbaceous plants and provide winter interest. Hundreds of perennials are laced between the shrubs and grow up beneath the arbor.

"Perennials offer such an incredible ongoing variety," Vi offers as the reason for creating such complex, maintenance-heavy, endlessly changing borders. To mix it up a bit more, she adds annuals for the summer. "Because I collect so many different plants, I think it helps unify the garden to repeat annuals through the beds," she says. Drifts of pink impatiens thread through the sunny area, echoed by white impatiens in the shade garden.

The vegetable garden's sapling fence is obscured in late May by a mass planting of delphinium. Forty birdhouses, each unique and built by the owners, sit atop fence posts to attract birds and human visitors to the tidy rows of vegetables.

All this froth of plants is supported and delineated by the structures of the garden. Don Kono builds the wooden structures and helps lay the paths. He'll also do any job that gives him an excuse to get out his tractor. Stone paths link the various areas of the garden, open up vistas and direct focus as well as offer close-up access for viewing and weeding.

A dry streambed filled with rock flows through the garden's length, creating pattern and a place for water to drain in the rainy season. This entire sunny area is bisected by a 40-foot-long arbor painted white and laced with vines. Early blooming Clematis montana begins the show, and the pale pink little flowers of Rosa 'Cecile Brunner' carry it into summer, followed by Rosa 'New Dawn.' "There is nothing like an arbor to play around with vines," says Vi, who should have plenty of room to carry out her vine experiments for some time to come.

Another unifying theme is color, and in the sunny borders Vi dabbles in purple and yellow. The small shrub Caryopteris x clandonensis 'Worcester Gold' has golden leaves and lavender flowers from midsummer into fall. Spirea japonica 'Goldmound' adds intensely yellow foliage to the garden all summer, as does the small, bright tree Robinia pseudoacacia 'Frisia.' Closer to the ground, Euphorbia polychroma with yellow-green bracts and the wandering yellow hardy geranium `Anne Folkard' provide the light notes. Purple petunias emphasize the dark shades in smokebush, and the heart-shaped burgundy leaves of Cercis canadensis 'Forest Pansy.'

Vi repeats plants that prove successful, plus she revels in trying out plants in different conditions just to see how they fare. "Plants are often far more flexible than we give them credit for," she says.

The Konos' large vegetable garden is as ornamental as the more flowery areas, surrounded by a sapling fence and a mass planting of delphiniums, with more than 40 birdhouses sitting atop posts. The result of a two-week building binge, the little houses, each one unique, draw you in to look closely at the tidy rows of vegetables behind the blue spires of delphinium. Aural ambience is added by cooing doves in a cage on the nearby patio.

Above: The nursery area where Vi nurtures her seedlings has an old wooden fence topped with whirligigs made of tart tins and teapots. The found-objects theme continues with the vertical fence supports, which are crafted of old oars, shovels, driftwood and pitchforks. Right: An old stove keeps the greenhouse warm for January potting duties.

Up a hill behind the vegetable garden is a work area, but this one isn't hidden, as in most gardens. Instead, a winding stone path entices you to find a greenhouse complete with woodstove to provide warmth for January potting, and a nursery surrounded by a most unusual fence. Vi originally designed the fence for a Northwest Flower and Garden Show display called "Memories of Grandma's Country Home," disassembling it after the show and bringing it home to liven up her own garden. An old wooden fence with peeling paint is topped with whirligigs made of tart tins and teapots, and the vertical fence supports are crafted of old oars, shovels, driftwood and pitchforks, decorated with chains and colorful balls. Just the kind of relics you might unearth on any frontier homestead, put to use enlivening and personalizing this sprawling Eastside garden of today.

Usually the private gardens shown in Pacific Northwest magazine are not available for touring, but the Konos' property is one of five gardens open to the public for the Woodinville "Tour of Gardens 2001" on Saturday, July 7, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tickets are $15 per person, and include a post-tour reception with wine tasting and appetizers at Willows Lodge in Woodinville. Tickets are available at Molbak's Nursery in Woodinville and Classic Nursery on Avondale Road in Redmond. For more information call 425-481-6127.

Valerie Easton is a horticultural librarian and writes about plants and gardens for Pacific Northwest magazine. She is the co-author of "Artists in Their Gardens" from Sasquatch Books. Her e-mail address is vjeaston@aol.com. Mike Siegel is a Seattle Times photographer.