Ask Art to describe his landscape, and he replies, "Eclectic. Maniacal." His is the quintessential cottage garden, where exuberance, color, and freedom reign supreme. Formality and regimentation are verboten. Few straight lines, no stairstep plantings, no sheared hedges, no edged lawns. Plants intertwine and jostle for sunlight; seedlings come up where they will.

photo: Beside white-flowering money plant and yellow greater celandine rests Art's "anti-gazing ball,” a clay sphere bought at a discount store.