With your back to the house, you look out over the pool to a central path, lined with pots and arching trellises, that leads to the back of the garden. The pots and arches slow down the eye as you look down the path, making the distance appear greater.

On either side of the path leading to the back of the garden, undulating beds frame small lawns. The curvy borders slow the eye down so you’re less apt to take in the measure of the small spaces.

The pool adds new meaning to ‘water feature’, incorporating a rocky waterfall. Note the bright yellow flowers just peaking out along the top of the falls. Then take a look at the next photo.

Here are those yellow flowers you could just see peaking out at the top of the waterfall in the previous photo. The back of the falls has been transformed into a rock garden lining a path that runs down the side of the garden.

Another water feature looks much bigger than it actually is thanks to ornamental grasses that add to the feeling of spraying water.

Even the fence surrounding the garden has been put to good use supporting trays of small pots for seedlings.

At the end of one path along the side of the garden, an arch filled with a mirror stealthily adds to the feeling that this garden goes on forever.

Arches don’t always serve to lead you down a path. They also frame views, slow the eye yet again and, yup, hold up some more plants.

Behind a wall of plants at the very back of the garden, a private nursery saves space by stacking potted plants on stands….

…storing pots on shelves and hanging them high on the back fence.

This extraordinary garden makes you think twice about the capacity of an average backyard to amass plants and defy its proportions. Is there a limit? Maybe not.
More about the latest Toronto Botanical Garden tour in my next posting.