Art collector Carol Appel starts all her projects with a clear picture in mind. And it was no different back in 1999, when she first hired landscape gardener Tom Braybrook to tidy up the front yard and plant some boxwood at the home she shares with her husband, David, in Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ont. Impressed with his work, she soon handed Braybrook an image of an abstract painting called *Non-Parallel Lines* by American artist Richard Diebenkorn, and said: “This is what I’d like my garden to be.”
Many would have balked at the challenge or written off the homeowner as a kook due to the painting’s intricate detail. But Braybrook, whom Appel now calls “the great one,” was instantly intrigued. “She often comes up with a concept that seems, well, impossible!” he says. “But it always ends up looking fabulous. She’s constantly painting in her mind, knowing that colours come and go.”
**A striking pink sculpture by Franz West holds its own amid the radiant fall hues of a golden ginkgo tree, scarlet Japanese maples and rusty red stonecrop blooms. The Appel family cat poses on wide stone steps built by mason Brian Jackson.**
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