When people say there was nothing there before they started a garden, they usually mean they had lawn, a tree or two, maybe a few bushes.

Samantha Minnett -- Sam to her friends and teacher colleagues -- began with a front yard of pea gravel, cement, dirt, and an overgrown back yard piled with old bricks. A couple of glorious 25-metre willows (one just recently taken down because it was dying) were the sole redeeming feature of the back yard.

The house is a block east of Victoria Park and it was a real fixer-upper. Part of it dates from 1880. The kitchen was the carriage house of the farmhouse behind.

While Minnett renovated the house, assisted by her mother and friends, she also plunged into the garden. In just three years, she has turned the front into a charming, attractive cottage garden planted around flagstone and cut stone, and the back into a relaxing, shady oasis, cosy and spacious enough for al fresco entertaining.

A side path, entered through a lovely old iron gate, and passing under a large arbour, links the two.

Everything in the garden -- from plants to stone to furniture to collectibles and curiosities -- cost her less that $500. Almost none of it is new, and nothing cost retail.

Plants came from other gardens, patio furniture is from "curbside pickups" on garbage days, and a beautiful water feature was created from an old iron wine press that someone tossed in the trash.

"I like old things," Minnett says. "The house is an old cottage -- and (the garden) suits it."

The back garden is planted around a small, ground-level deck. Beds are edged with the bricks that were piled in the yard and now have developed a lovely mossy patina.

Ferns, hostas and a surprisingly colourful and happy clematis thrive in the shade of a 25-metre willow with fabulous vertical lines. A discarded swing seat, an old piano bench and Muskoka chairs pulled from the trash provide plenty of seating.

"It's a tiny little back yard, but I had a welcome party with 70 people here inside and out. I found out you can do it."

The front garden gets lots of direct morning sun and is mostly shades of purple with splashes of contrasting yellow now.

Phlox is a lovely companion to black-eyed Susan, roses climb the fence, hydrangeas are splashes of creamy white, and pansies and sweet potato vine spill out of a galvanized washtub that sits on an old wood bench. Rose of sharon and purple coneflower are next to the sidewalk. A weeping birch anchors one corner and a crabapple another.

The front door is flanked by two wooden chairs, two planted urns and two weeping mulberries. This formality contrasts with the cottage style of the rest of the garden and draws the eye to the lines of the front of the house.

The fence of repurposed grid shelving wraps around one side and about half of the front. It gives definition to the garden space and something for plants to climb but leaves the garden open and welcoming to passersby.

Minnett, a teacher, enjoys the neighbourhood and the people around her.

"I love it out here. I spend a lot of evenings in a chair outside the front door, just taking it all in."

Rob Howard lives and gardens in Hamilton. gardenwriter.com