he first time I met Wilf and Carole Hart, I was trespassing in their back garden.

I was with a small group judging city properties for the Red Trillium Award, given to the best example of civic beautification in Hamilton. We had judged and scored the corner property on Lister Avenue and a few of us, thinking no one was home, tiptoed into the back garden to see what they had done. That's when Wilf came out and said hello. In the end, we awarded the Red Trillium to the Harts, not knowing it was their second win.

The Harts' property is immaculate, lovely and among the most inviting I've visited. It opens itself to passersby in a way that's not often seen.

In a gap in the cedar hedge is a lovely arbour that Wilf built with wood from an old picnic table. Instead of the usual gate, it's open to the back garden. Similarly, the front garden simply flows into the back.

"I wanted a garden that would provide a nice view from the street, the house and the driveway," says Carole.

Front and back flower beds are generously planted with perennials and 1,000 pink impatiens that have the effect on the half-acre property of tying together the beds and borders.

Wilf and Carole have been in the house for 37 years, but the front garden wasn't created until the house was connected to city sewers in the late 1990s and they were able to plant four large Crimson King maples where the septic beds had been. Under the maples are large beds of perennials and shrubs for winter interest.

The Harts received their first civic beautification Trillium in 1993, the second in 2000, and have won one every year since, as well as two Pink Trilliums (best in the ward) and two Red Trilliums.

Like so many gardens, this one is a repository of memories. More than a dozen Royal Standard hostas came from one plant out of the garden of Carole's mother. The same is true of the many Autumn Joy sedum that originated in the garden of Wilf's mother.

Perennials are carefully sited and spaced, with mulch to control weeds, hold moisture in the soil and give the beds a finished look.

"I don't like clutter," Carole says. "I don't care for tall frothy things that blow down."

On one side of the property is an attractive brick wall, built by a previous owner. Cedars alternate with pink hydrangea complemented by clumps of tall ornamental grasses.

Ball cedar, spirea, weigela and a mix of hostas repeat through the four beds. Carole uses perennial and shrub foliage for variety. "When you have just one colour of flowers (they use a different annual for edging each year), you need a mix of the whites and silvers and greens in the foliage," she says.

They pack a lot into their beds. One, for example, contains a yucca called bright-edged sword, Silver Mound artemisia, heuchera (Carole's favourite perennial), rock cress, bleeding heart, Raspberry Parfait dianthus, ajuga, lambs' ears and three varieties of spirea -- Little Princess, Shirobana (which flowers in pink and white on the same stems) and Golden Mound.

"We don't get away in the summer," Wilf says. "This is our pride and joy."

rhoward@thespec.com