Divine inspiration could have helped Rafael Sciullo in the design of his containers and garden in Ellwood City.

This former Catholic monk puts not only his soul into his garden but also many religious ornaments, including a church angel and a holy water font made into a charming fountain.

There are signs of the secular, too. Greek-style statues and Prairie-style urns also populate the small yard surrounding a 1908 brick Foursquare.

"I like to mix the styles," he says with a smile.

Indeed, everything melds together into a seamless whole.

Not that it was easily done. Before he bought the property, some of the original yard was annexed for a parking lot for the funeral home across the street. What remains is a small square surrounding the home.

"The space challenged me" he says while walking around the property. "I knew if I was going to have color, I needed containers."

Mr. Sciullo is so good with containers that he was a finalist in the 2007 Container Design Challenge Contest held by Fine Gardening magazine. His entry, a large urn, contained a canna, ornamental cabbage and kale, and golden creeping jenny. This year's derivation of that theme sits by the Greek statue.

Those plants are repeated throughout the garden, where he likes to use both tropical plants and annuals in unusual ways. He started with very few plants.

"There were two yews here when I moved in nine years ago," he says.

The home was a duplex then. Over time, he has restored its former grandeur, creating both a feeling of unity and a garden that complements the lovely old home.

The foundation plantings contain some fairly typical shrubs, like barberry and yew, livened with bright pansies and perennials. In two large planters on the front porch are common creeping junipers that Mr. Sciullo has clipped into a semiformal form. To make his home welcoming, he extended the flower beds right to the sidewalk.

The plantings continue around the side of the house, where ornamental kale, coleus, 'Creme Brulee' heuchera and 'Victoria Blue' salvia mix with 'Annabelle' and 'Peegee' hydrangeas and Japanese maples. He also interplants houseplants like philodendron, spider plants and schefflera into his pots.

The back porch, where friendly dog Celeste greets visitors, is a homey space filled with potted plants. Roses dominate the beds in front of the porch, with the blood-red 'Mr. Lincoln' in full glory.

More of Mr. Sciullo's lush pots fill an old concrete-block grill in the yard and a concrete pad that used to serve as the landing place for a fire escape. He had a pergola built over the pad and a gate custom-made for a side space. He has even installed ornamental ironwork on the second story of the home, so the flower theme could be continued upward. Pots abound on the ironwork in European fashion. Planted baskets hang along the fence and on hangers around the perimeter of the property.

The Bloomfield native shears his containers early and often. Perennials and trees get the same treatment. He even gives the ornamental grass, planted on either side of the side gate, a regular haircut to keep it from getting unruly. He's not afraid to add or subtract plants from containers when they aren't working or are overgrown.

Mr. Sciullo has small herb and vegetable gardens so he can harvest fresh produce for cooking. He grows lavish borage -- with its china-blue flowers -- more for decoration than culinary purposes, he confesses, but the basil and chives are harvested for the table.

Quite often, people stop and ask if they can walk through his yard. He is always pleased to share.

"The garden is replenishment," he says with a smile.