The overall structure of his two-acre garden relies on geometric spaces defined by stone pathways and evergreens?a cultivated contrast to the surrounding forest. Deacon was looking for something with a little more freedom from the Mondrian-style precision of the garden as a whole, as well as a palette to counterbalance his work in the Kitchen and Colour Wheel gardens. These gardens, with their intense visual and sensual experiences, lie on a path that forms the garden?s secondary axis. Running straight as a die through them to the Shade Garden, this path then curves, terminating in an odd, wedge-shaped space (32 feet long by 15 feet wide, narrowing to seven feet) created by the swimming pool. It was here that Deacon wanted a major shift in mood as well as an element of surprise. A garden of black foliage provided the perfect solution.

Deacon says entering the Black Garden is like ?coming into a dark room out of the bright sunlight.?