By Jim McCausland, Sunset senior garden writer

After you stroll out of the rosarium at Minter Gardens in British Columbia, the path opens into a long, lovely rectangle of grass that’s surrounded by clipped boxwood hedges, arborvitaes, and perennials (which could easily make another story; see bottom photo). The entry at each end is guarded by a pair of yews. It has just that formal restfulness you’d expect from an English country garden—but the story doesn't end there.

You’re looking at a block of turf that appears to be about one third longer than its actual length of 100 feet. The illusion is produced by making the far end of the lawn about 25 percent narrower than the near end. Looking back from the other end, the lawn appears to be about a third shorter than it actually is. Actual width is about 30 feet at the near end and 22 feet at the far end, but the principle holds at any width. You can use it to foreshorten a long garden bed or lawn, or visually extend a shorter one.

The garden room that contains this lawn is bordered with arborvitae walls that also enclose beds of boxwood, Celosia, New Zealand flax, sweet alyssum, and cannas. If you've ever been deceived by the notion that formal gardens are stiff and unimaginative, this should dispel it. The best formal gardens are serenely beautiful places whose strength lies in the blend of thoughtful structure with more relaxed displays of foliage and flowers.