Victor Kobayashi’s garden delights the senses. It’s a vision of chaotic beauty, with colorful pathways, patterned mosaic walls and lush plants. The display he’s created can be mesmerizing.

The 83-year-old retired professor has tended the garden at his St. Louis Heights home since he and his wife, Cleo, moved there in 1978. They live on a hill above Kaimuki with a spectacular view of Diamond Head and an atmosphere of serenity.

The garden, a tribute to Kobayashi’s never-ending creativity, is a living extension of the way he views the world around him.

“The landscape is a part of the home that helps enhance things,” he said. “It’s meant to be enjoyed. Every little space should be alive.”

Everything fits together in his garden, like one of his mosaics, from the pottery to the patchwork of overgrown plants — which he calls “volunteers” — that have popped up everywhere.

Some of the volunteers he views as weeds and others as flowers. It just depends on where they’re growing.

The entryway to his home is covered with mosaic tiles that he created by placing pieces of glass, broken dishes and other materials in intricate patterns of color. He’s done the same thing with nearby steps, creating mosaic tiles for a winding path that leads to the garden. Nearby garden walls are covered with more mosaic patterns made with sea glass, stones and lava rocks. There’s a small fish pond here, with lilies, and a patch of orchids, bromeliads and tillandsia that add an abundance of color.

Kobayashi has been an artist since childhood, so it was natural for him to incorporate art throughout the garden. Some of it was created in a studio behind his home, while other items were given to him by friends who know his creative nature.

“If people give me trivets, I incorporate them into the designs on the wall,” he said.

He’s won art awards for his works, including the Koa Award from Kapiolani Community College for outstanding artist in 2011. Some of his ceramic works are in collections at the Hawaii State Museum and the Honolulu Museum of Art.

A professor emeritus who worked in the Department of Educational Foundations at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, Kobayashi is a recognized authority in the field of education and continues to share his expertise around the world. Although retired, he’s given talks in recent years at the University of Tokyo, University of Kyoto and Stockholm University and was invited to Nigeria to speak. A lifelong learner, he continues to research topics near and dear to him, including education and children.

Kobayashi sees art as synonymous with learning.

“I view art and aesthetics as an important basis for all human endeavors, including our relationship to the ecosystem, and have been working on ideas that make art a basic part of all education,” he said. “If we teach math as an art to children, kids really enjoy it.”

Kobayashi, who has three children, enjoys sharing the garden with his six grandchildren.

“They just look around and don’t feel the need to like it,” he said. “They just explore because they’re curious. Children will just pick up a rock or something that they find interesting.”

Found objects have also been incorporated into the garden. An old masonry shop was closing and Kobayashi found some abandoned plaques for servicemen, such as those used for war memorials. “Maybe they had errors and needed to be redone,” he said.

Kobayashi included them along a wall in the garden, so the plaques wouldn’t be discarded.

He learned to appreciate gardening, and even the beauty of wildflowers, from his parents.

“It’s wonderful to see things bloom,” he said. “It’s not permanent, but that’s how things are. It brings joy to your life.”