Sue and Paul Solinski had landscaping around the house they shared for 15 years in West View. But they never had a garden until they built a new house in Franklin Park -- and met Karen Atkins.

The couple found the garden designer's booth at the 2007 Pittsburgh Design Fair, while their French Norman-style stone house was under construction in the Scarlett Ridge development. The house stands out among its traditional Colonial neighbors. The Solin­skis wanted its landscaping to stand out, too.

"They wanted a garden that looked like a 17th-century French villa," remembered Ms. Atkins, owner of Proper Gardens in Daugherty, Beaver County.

At the Design Fair, she had lots of clipped boxwood on display, which attracted the Solinskis.

"We like boxwood," said Mr. Solinski, 44, a pharmacist. "We like the European style of gardening."

Their interest and Ms. Atkins' expertise resulted in a series of formal spaces that combine French parterre and potager elements with medieval English knot gardens. The nearly half-acre plot was the winner of the medium garden category of the PG's Great Gardens Contest, co-sponsored by the Botanic Garden of Western Pennsylvania.

The victory came as a bit of a surprise to the couple, who never really thought of themselves as gardeners until they started working with Ms. Atkins.

"She's come up with some really nice, original ideas," Mr. Solinski said. "During the planning stage, she gave us several options. It sounded wonderful, really. We knew we would have gardening as a hobby from then on."

Ms. Atkins' ideas included using large swags of thick rope as a trellis for 'Amethyst Falls' purple wisteria in the fruit and vegetable (potager) garden. In another area, crabapple trees appear to be planted in wooden boxes that are actually raised beds surrounded by pea gravel. Along one stone retaining wall, she planted an aerial hedge of European hornbeam trees with French lavender growing at their base. And a tunnel formed from a series of steel hoops supports honeysuckle, crabapples and climbing roses.

Mixed into the three distinct gardens are many interesting plants, including 'May Knight' salvia, 'Blanche Sandman' honeysuckle, 'Walkers Low' and 'Blue Wonder' catmint, 'Zephirine Drouhin' thornless roses and 'Alaska' variegated nasturtium.

The Solinskis' garden is as practical as it is pretty. Growing in neat rectangular and semicircular beds in the potager garden are sage, parsley, cilantro, tarragon, thyme, cabbage, onions, broccoli, cauliflower, mesclun greens and other herbs and vegetables.

On annual vacations in Europe, the Solinskis said, they sometimes visit public gardens. Their favorite is the Manoir d'Eyrignac in the Bordeaux region. But even this 500-year-old manor does not have a knot garden in the shape of a fleur-de-lis. It was Ms. Atkins' idea to use a French symbol in an English form.

The couple also found a kindred spirit in their builder, Hank Swierczynski of Hendolhurst Homes. He built the wall around the potager garden of the same honey-colored cast stone used on the house, Ohio Cobblestone by Dutch Quality Stone.

The matching stone helps unify the property, as does the burning bush hedge that borders the corner lot. Mr. Solinski said most of their neighbors in the growing development seem to approve of their unusual landscaping.

"I think a few of them wonder what we're trying to do here," he said.

A formal French garden is not a low-maintenance choice; the Solinskis have someone else mow the grass and trim the hedges, but they do everything else.

"It doesn't seem like a chore to us," he said. "We both enjoy being outside now."

They're looking forward to using their gift certificate from Brenckle's Farm & Greenhouse, part of their contest prize. Ms. Atkins giggles at her clients' newfound joy in what she calls their "estate garden in the suburbs." She wonders why more don't tread the garden path.

"I don't know how people can live without it."

Daniel Marsula/Post-Gazette

A : Burning bush hedge
B : Stone wall
C : Potager garden off basement level
D : Pea gravel

E : Retaining wall
F : Long porch overlooks knot garden
G : Flagstone path with arches and bench

H : Wooden planters
I : Boxwood
J : Fountain

Doug Oster writes a blog, "Growing With Doug," exclusively at PG+, a members-only web site of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.