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Now you might think tackling an entire backyard would be a daunting task to a high school girl. But Emily and twin sister Claire grew up watching their parents tear down walls, raise beams into place, and slam drywall onto framing timbers over many years of remodeling their homes. "Houses were like huge playgrounds to us," Emily says. Along the way, the girls learned a few things about the joy of home projects. "It's funny," mom Jan says now. "In 36 years of marriage, I don't think we've ever completed a house."

So it wasn't that much of a stretch in year two of the garden when Emily decided the yard needed a formal brick path. She struggled with a shovel, then a pick, vainly attempting to remove all the necessary turf and soil. But only a few weeks later, Paul agreed to pitch in there too. The project grew in scope as Paul decided to tackle some drainage problems at the same time. "Part of the garden had been quite boggy," he says. Paul, a dentist, approached the drainage aspect of the project almost as if he were an engineer. "My dad is like me," Emily says. "He likes to research things."

As project and summer reached a fever pitch, even Jan and Claire joined in, the entire family working sometimes into the evening. Together they laid French drains--gravel and perforated pipe--and hooked them into the storm sewer. "First we rented a sod cutter, then a ditch digger," says Jan. "By the time we finished that path, we'd rented every machine in Gig Harbor." Emily says, "It worked out well, because I didn't have a job, so I worked in the garden. Then at night when my friends were free, I went back to acting like a teenager."

Emily's garden inspirations were also fueled by her high school science teacher and study hall supervisor, William Wetzler, an avid gardener. "I made sure to finish my homework so I could talk with him about gardening," she recalls. She would bring in pictures from magazines, and he would tell her about the plants. Sometimes he gave her seeds and clippings from his own garden. At 11 . the night before graduation, the girls were out in the dark and damp backyard, Claire holding a flashlight, Emily with an umbrella in one hand and weeding with the other. "Emily wanted the garden to took its best for her teacher," Paul says. The next day, Mr. Wetzler gave her a climbing rose for a graduation gift. It still grows on her parents' picket fence.

Claire often helped her sister with plant placement, "and Mom brought home plants she thought I'd like," but the garden was not their abiding interest. "I'm not a bug person," Claire says. Says Emily, "She was a good sport. She sat out and read while I was gardening." Claire did however, love the garden enough to--years later--have her wedding reception there. "It was magical," Paul says.

The girls went off to college and Emily toyed with the idea of becoming a landscape architect before settling on urban planning. During the summers and most weekends, she returned to help her dad in the garden. Now, however, the Kadziks hire out the garden maintenance.

The Kadzik garden has two personalities, divided by the brick path and flanking boxwood hedges. The upper garden has a more formal feel, with three gland beds, gravel paths, a brick wall, a patio, and a hidden fountain. Paul added a tall evergreen laurel hedge, enhancing the garden's design and also providing privacy and a sense of enclosure. On the other side of the brick path is a cottage garden, with broad flowing borders, casually shaped beds, perennials, shrubs, and an abundance of scented roses.

The path terminates in a wisteria-covered pergola that Paul constructed. "We've grown so fond of structure," he says. But it is the plants that stand center stage. When the granite was being installed for steps and a retaining wall in the formal garden, Paul supervised the mason very carefully. "I was so fussy, because I wanted it to look nice," he says. KNow you can barely see it because the plantings have grown so much."

Paul says that although he and his daughter came to share a love of gardening, they occasionally fought about it too. "She and I are very much alike," he says. "Were both strong-willed, and we butted heads a couple of times on plant placement. Her mother had to referee."

Emily and her husband have recently bought a house in nearby Seattle. Naturally, they gutted the place. And just as naturally, her parents worked with them on weekends throughout the remodeling. "Now that the house is done," Emily says, "we're redoing the garden."

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