The old house is painted a soft teal with pale, celery-colored trim. The front steps are a bold hydrangea blue that matches the darkest blossoms in the lace cap, whose foamy fullness nearly obscures the handrail by midsummer. A bluestone path leads around the side of the house and beneath an arbor to a deck and compact, two-tiered back garden. All along this side street off Queen Anne Avenue, houses are raised above the street, dominating the garden in the traditional hierarchy of house as the predominant feature. In Hand's landscape, the skillful blending of house and garden through color and structures lends an air of generous proportion to both.

The shady side yard is brightened by the chartreuse of euphorbia and the brilliant yellow leaves and tiny pink flowers of Lamium maculatum 'Aureum.'		Hand uses a redhead's palette to warm up the garden with touches of orange and apricot, such as these Peruvian lilies (Alstroemeria aurea) set against a blue-toned ornamental grass.		A single focal point can have great impact in a small garden, as with the dramatic trim and window- box along the back of Hand's house. The plantings overflow to cascade down the side of the house and meet the container plantings on the deck.

The color play is obvious before you step from your car — Hand's parking strip is an artful blend of purples and silvers that continues up the front steps to the door of the house. Various artemisias, Verbena bonariensis, catmint and lamb's ears in the parking strip are matched across the sidewalk by a rockery coated in the shimmery silver of Senecio greyii, the gray-green of rosemary, and the dark purple leaves of Diabolo ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius 'Diabolo'). The whole scene is lightened by a hefty white wisteria that softens the house's roof line with its abundance of ferny foliage.

The front hillside and parking-strip gardens are an experiment in drought-tolerant plantings; Hand rarely waters this sunny area once the plants are established. Except she cheats a bit on the water, because she had to have a Stewartia pseudocamellia, and despite the fact it is a thirsty tree, the front garden was the only spot she could find for it. Hence one of the compromises well-known to the plant-driven gardener working with limited space. Most of the plantings out front are surviving beautifully on a limited water regime, including Russian sage, rock roses (Cistus species), rugosa roses, phormium and sunroses (Helianthemum species).

The back lawn area is thickly planted for privacy. A golden locust is along the fence; spires of white-trimmed Scrophularia auriculata 'Variegata' are underplanted with a froth of chartreuse lady's mantle.		Hand has been working on her garden for 20 years. An aged apple tree is one of the few original plants, adding structure to the little lawn, as well as a shady spot for a chair and table.		Hand dug out space to build a deck across the back of the house, providing steps and a level area in the steep garden for dining and a display of pots.

Hand has been working on the house and garden since the day she moved in 20 years ago. A few original plants remain, including single white Japanese anemones and a hardy geranium. An aged apple tree spreads its gnarly limbs to shade the lawn on the upper level of the garden. Much of the house and garden were in disrepair when Hand bought the place in 1982, and she removed blackberries, big old camellias and spindly rose bushes.

"I'm not a great carpenter, but I've designed and built the structures here," says Hand of the arbor that spans the narrow side garden, and a pergola holding a bounteously blooming honeysuckle. "I probably could have made the back deck larger," she muses, "but I had to dig out the space for it myself."

The front steps are painted to match the deepest color blue in the lace-cap hydrangea; a bluestone pathway continues the color scheme around the side of the house.

The deck stretches the width of the house, providing room for a dining table and chairs and assortment of potted plantings, including a tall angel's trumpet (Brugmansia) dripping with fragrant apricot bells. The back garden is on two levels, with berries and tomatoes squeezed into the terraced beds between the deck and the lawn at the top.

Hand has been a graphic designer for the past 25 years, and perhaps she learned from that experience to garden in three dimensions. The garden is pulling her away from graphic design — she went back to school in the horticulture program at Edmonds Community College, and now spends about a third of her time designing residential gardens. The two skills overlap neatly, as when Hand designed the Heronswood Nursery catalog in exchange for plants. She likens graphic design to garden design, since both involve solving problems and organizing space around function. Her graphics work used to be mostly done in black and white, so she was concerned with shape, form and texture, all vital elements in the garden.

Her expertise with shape and form shows in both the structures and plantings in her garden. A surprising number of trees are squeezed into the small, two-level back garden. Each has been carefully chosen for multiseason interest. A fluffy golden Robinia pseudoacacia 'Frisia' leads your eye to the far back corner of the garden. A Cornus kousa blooms white in summer followed by bright autumn fruit. Several smoke bushes add plum-colored shadows. Hand has also draped vines on every available surface, training golden hops up big old lilacs, somehow finding space for honeysuckles, wisteria and clematis.

"I probably overplant," Hand admits, "but I never think of this garden as small — it is just what I have to work with."