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NORTH ATTLEBORO

Lush, green foliage and large, vivid blossoms are what you'll find through out the gardens Jeanne Sharples has created at 144 Wendy Drive during the eight years she and her husband Daniel have lived at the nearly 11-acre property.

But, it's only through much blood, sweat and tears that the luxuriant gardens now high light the Sharples' majestic home, which they have painted a soft yellow to complement the brilliant array of color from the front gardens.

`` When we moved in, I had hopes of a beautiful rock gar den that sprawled through my front yard,'' Jeanne said.

`` What I didn't expect was the unbelievable amount of rocks and boulders that I would find or just how huge of an undertaking it was going to be.'' For the first few years, when not tending to her hus band and their three young sons, Jeanne spent many soli tary hours chipping away at her vision, tackling the rocky, claylike soil.

For the last four or five years, she has been assisted by her friend Jim Allen, a retired landscape designer and fulltime artist from North Attle boro.

`` Jim has kept me going and has worked extremely hard with me in the trenches, dig ging, sifting out rocks, enhanc ing the soil, battling bad insects, fungus, chipmunks, rabbits and deer, and making the vision a reality,'' she said.

The front beds that make up Jeanne's vision are set within an L-shaped rock garden that measures about 50 feet at one end, 70 feet at the other, and about six feet deep throughout.

The garden offers an array of color from one end to the other through spring and sum mer and adds a special enhancement to each day for the Sharples.

`` The best part of the day is when my family has finished their dinner and my husband and I go out front to take in the beauty. I know how much he appreciates how magnificent it is and it pleases me so. My whole family loves and respects nature and my garden attracts the hummingbirds, goldfinches, cardinals, orioles, colorful dragonflies and butter flies.''

The view is so impressive, in fact, that Jim has done several oil paintings of the garden, which offer a pleasant reminder during the fall and winter of their beauty as they hang on the Sharples' walls.

What makes the gardens so impressive, however, is not just the variety of plantings but rather the lushness of each bit of green foliage and the pro fuseness of blossoms on each flowering-plant.

With Jim's guidance, Jeanne has painstakingly enhanced the soil to produce such plantings.

To prepare the soil for enhancement, Jeanne and Jim first screened it to remove the rocks and then added lots of leaf mulch to lighten its heavy, claylike texture and increase moisture retention. Once ready, the soil was enriched with nutrients, such as ionite, which maximized the greenness and strength of the foliage and super phosphate, which maximized the size and amount of blossoms.

In its completed, although ever-changing, state, the Lshaped, terraced rock garden features five trees, with a spe cial botanical scene beneath each one.

Situated around the large Kousa dogwood, with its white summer blossoms, pink and white carpet roses, yellow Stel la D'Oro daylilies, pink cleome, purple liatris, and purple cone flower add a splash of color right now, while the springblooming azalea, columbine, peony, bearded Iris and Siber ian iris, still offer greenery, along with variegated hosta, dead nettle and vinca.

Under the weeping cherry tree, around a large mass of puddingstone rock ledge, the tall, white spiked blossoms of a fairy candle plant, also known as black snakeroot, along with red roses and a wide spectrum of daylilies and Asiatic lilies in various shades of white, yellow, pink and red steal the show.

But, the weeping cherry tree area, which slopes upward, offers many other attractions as well, including astilbe, bleeding heart, yellow coreopsis, red and yellow yarrow, black-eyed Susan, pur ple coneflower, purple salvia, deep pink spirea, orange but terfly weed, red geum and var ious shades of pink phlox.

Greenery around this tree features a bird's nest spruce, vinca, Autumn Joy sedum and hens and chicks.

At the end of this shorter section of the L-shaped garden, where the angle starts to turn left along the longest and high est section, a weeping beech serves as a nice focal point.

In front of the beech tree, one of Jeanne's favorite plants a deep purple clematis spreads its large blossoms over a black wrought iron trellis, while a variety of pink phlox and other flowers add their own burst of color. Nearby, there is also a large patch of red beebalm and a patch of one of Jeanne's newer varieties of daylilies a cantaloupe-colored variety called `` King Mellon.''

Heading toward the threadleaf red maple tree, are a few favorite daylilies of Jeanne's one titled `` Heavy Makeup,'' one titled `` Black-eyed Susan'' and one unknown variety all of which offer maroon or bur gundy centers, which Jeanne says complement one another as well as the leaves of the maple tree.

Sharing the spotlight around the maple tree and the nearby honey locust, are a large patch of lady's mantle and a blue globe dwarf spruce, which Jeanne is also fond of, as well as numerous other flowering plants and greenery.

Just beyond the curved brick stairs that temporarily divides the garden, a large patch of pink carpet roses offers one final splash of color in this garden. But this is not the only garden area.

Several trees and shrubbery, from white-flowering dogwoods to fragrant viburnum, spread ing English yews, azalea and rhododendron adorn the exteri or of the house, as do the fresh floral arrangements Jeanne has created on the front steps.

In back of the house, Jeanne has created a raised rectangu lar bed between the screenedin porch and deck, filled with marigolds, snapdragons, cleome, hibiscus and morning glory.

But, the Sharples' gardens offer more than just a pretty face -- they offer good things to eat. There's an herb garden Jeanne planted around a large rock and they can pick fruit from peach, pear and apple trees in an orchard Daniel has created on a wide, grassy area of the property.

And, joining his parents' love of nature, their oldest son, 8-year-old Andrew, has started a small flower garden around the mailbox.