Margi Buster's favorite place, the nook where she finds both solace and sustenance, is awash in color, full of buzzing bees and butterflies, and serenaded by the tinkle of a weeping wall. It is springtime in Buster's expansive garden, and the Homestead native and community activist is keen to show off her plants.

Through a tree tunnel and past a fountain, along a backyard path with 40 different bromeliads and more than 500 orchids, Buster turns philosophical:

''When you have a passion for plants, you're never depressed, you're never bored,'' she says. ``You always have something to do and a place to go. It's something that uplifts you.''

Indeed, Buster, who lives in a seven-bedroom, five-bath house with husband Charles, seems far more interested in the outdoors than in the simply appointed 7,000-square-foot home where the couple raised five daughters. She claims she dreams in garden design, and keeps her five acres ``oversimplified because I'm a lazy gardener.''

Yet, most of the trees and bushes she has planted in the past 30 years have their own tale -- one grown from a pot, another the mother of countless pups, a third found in a friend's yard. A fuchsia bougainvillea at the entrance of her home is humongous and more than 20 years old. Never trimmed except for its wayward bottom branches, it makes a bold statement of riotous color -- and a proud preview of what awaits a visitor in the rest of the Busters' yard.

''There's always something blooming here at any given time,'' she says. ``Not only do I want to grow a pretty plant, but it also has to have a purpose.''

In some cases, her plants attract bees and hummingbirds. Others bear fruit. Sometimes they become morning java. Along a long flower bed under the eaves of the house, for instance, she grows coffee plants. She collects the beans and grinds them.

Buster, who with her husband and another couple own a wholesale indoor foliage nursery business, divides her yard into color rooms. She has planted a Red Room with crimson pentas and bottlebrush and chenille trees. The Purple and Yellow Room runs along a concrete pathway, with a yesterday today and tomorrow bush, stella dora day lilies and variegated ginger.

KITCHEN GARDEN

Another section is her kitchen garden, an orchard full of kumquats, loquats, lychees, guavas, peaches and cherries. Herbs grow in tall concrete planters, and a raised bed is home to her prized vegetables: garlic chives, lettuce, Everglades tomatoes, lemongrass and eggplant. To stroll this area is to embark on a culinary adventure as Buster picks -- and savors -- a taste of everything from chives to basil to vine-ripened tomatoes.

''I've made it low maintenance,'' she says. ``It's design, design, design. We water once a week. We mulch down twice a year and feed twice a year, and we use no chemicals. It's that simple.''

Perhaps the most unusual of Buster's garden designs is a 160-foot weeping wall, complete with a grotto. She had it installed 15 years ago, and it took workers -- and a crane -- three days to move the 10,000-pound rocks into place. The result was well worth it. No other part of her garden is quite like this one, a contemplative oasis reminiscent of some ancient mountain or cave.

It is little wonder that Buster does the bulk of her entertaining -- from board lunches for the nonprofit she founded to Easter egg hunts for her grandchildren -- in the great outdoors. ''This,'' she says simply, ``is where I like to be.''

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