WHEN JEFF AND HAZEL Beatty bought their Sheridan Beach home and garden in 1984, the front yard had 14 huge hemlocks and a couple of leggy, light-starved rhododendrons. To alleviate the gloom they removed a dozen trees, and a grateful neighbor brought them flowers.

A landscape designer was hired to draw a plan for both the front and back gardens, which the Beattys have roughly followed for the past decade, slowly putting together a garden of roses, perennials, rhododendrons and azaleas that provide beauty in all seasons. Familiar Northwest plants, interplanted with perennials, vines and groundcovers, have been layered together in perfect scale to their small-sized front garden.

"We began by focusing on rhododendrons, because those were the plants I knew," says Hazel Beatty. "I found a nursery going out of business, and bought many of the basic shrubs, nandina, rhodies, azaleas, for $1 each." She started out with small plants, letting them grow together into a pleasing tapestry, using patience to create an affordable garden. "You don't need much money if you're patient," says Hazel, particularly with perennials, where you can buy one or two and in a couple of years you'll have six or eight.

Several Rhododendron yakushimanum `Ken Janek,' low growing, with pale flowers exceptionally large in relation to the plant, were put in the garden when they were "only the size of grapefruits," laughs Beatty. With compact showiness ideal for a smaller garden, Yak rhodies provide winter interest, too, as the undersides of their leaves are covered in a coppery brown felt (indumentum) adding welcome color and texture to the garden on gray days.

The front garden steps down to the house entry, and flanks both a driveway and wide slate walkway. The plantings are low, naturalistic and mostly evergreen. April and May are the peak bloom months, but the pale apricot old garden rose `Sally Holmes' and the brightly colored foliage of a red Japanese maple and Pieris `Forest Flame' extend the season.

In recent years, Beatty has added perennials to the mix: hellebores for winter interest, heucheras for their mounded, variegated leaves and Astrantia major `Rubra' for summer color. She adds pink and white impatiens in late spring, interplanted with groundcovers such as Lamium maculatum `White Nancy.' These layered plantings, mixed in with the backbone of azaleas and rhodies, add complexity and color, giving neighbors and passersby something to admire all year long.

The back garden has been designed very differently; it is a more private space, meant to be looked down upon from the large deck off the living room and enjoyed during the summer months. Peonies, roses, lilies, asters and dahlias fill wide, curving beds arranged around a central winding pathway. The colors and textures are bold, planted in large enough swathes to be appreciated from above. Clematis climb several small trees and up the back fence, - C. `Henryi' and the dark red C. `Niobe' are favorites.

In the front entry garden, the Beattys have followed certain principles to create an interesting garden in a small, open, street-side space. There is no grass in either the front or back garden; all the space is given to pathways, patios and planting beds. Care is taken with color so the garden is vivid year-round, rather than a mass of gaudy bloom for a month in the springtime, often a problem with rhododendrons. "Timing of flowering is so important," Hazel explains. She plans for sequential bloom, with interest coming not only from flowers, but from foliage, buds and fading blossoms.

Texture is important in a small garden where every plant needs to earn its keep. The large conifers were replaced by three little ones, a very slow-growing bristlecone pine, a weeping Norwegian spruce and a dwarf blue Picea pungens `Globosa.' Their needles and interesting shapes contrast with the rounder, smoother broadleaf evergreens.

A plant's habit, or form, is often overlooked for its flower, which lasts such a short time. The plant's shape will either add to, or detract from, a garden every day all year. Form is an important consideration not only at planting time, but also as the plant grows and changes as it matures. Such careful consideration is what keeps the Beatty garden in scale with the street and the house.

What else goes into selecting just the right plant? "I look for the scented one first every time," says Beatty, "if it smells good, that always sways me." She researches all the cultivars and tries to be aware of what is available before she makes her choices.

Choose plants with a long bloom season," Beatty suggests, `"uch as the ever blooming Rosa `New Dawn,' hardy geraniums, Scabiosa columbaria `Butterfly Blue,' and Caryopteris (a blue-flowering, small shrub).

Not all her decisions are so studied and rational. "I love plant names," she exclaims, showing a pink rhododendron `Hazel,' and a bright red, twice-blooming `Fireman Jeff.'

Beatty, a former nurse, has taken the Washington State University/King County Master Gardener training, and brings her scientific background, knowledge of plants and organic bent to the care of the garden.

Her plants get daily attention. She treats them only when they suffer an infestation. Aphids and other minor problems are dispatched with a strong spray of water from the hose. The garden is well-mulched twice a year, rhododendrons are fed once before and once after they bloom, and Beatty calls dead-heading rhodies "a good cordless phone activity."

She doses her roses with a tonic of alfalfa pellet tea (see box for the recipe), and the garden gets added amounts of iron and magnesium, bone meal and mulch. "I work at home," explains Beatty. "And when things get slow with the business, I go out for a half-hour and tidy things up."

Valerie Easton is a horticultural librarian and free-lance writer. Mike Siegel is a Seattle Times photographer. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Spring Rose Tonic (Alfalfa Pellet Tea)

The American Rose Society recommends this tea, as it releases a growth hormone that produces a healthier rose bush. To make the tea, add 10 to 12 cups of alfalfa meal to a 32-gallon plastic garbage can (with a lid), add water, and steep for four or five days. Stir occasionally. You may also add two cups of Epsom salts (magnesium sulfate) and 1/2 cup of chelated iron. The tea will start to smell in about threes days, so keep the lid on the garbage can. Use 1/3 gallon on miniature roses, and 1 gallon on large bushes. You can keep adding water to the garbage can. One load of meal will make two barrelsful, but add more of the Epsom salts and iron. Use as a booster in spring, and you should see growth and stronger stems within a week.