[I’ve been blogging for a long time. I’ve been gardening for an even longer time. I’m betting you’re a little bored of my same old garden stories and views. So I’m gonna mix things up a bit this season. I’m going to show you parts of my garden that I don’t talk about so much. And if I get really motivated, I may even share stories of How Our Garden Came To Be. Stay tuned.]

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So. I have a pretty weird yard. Corner lot. Built into a big hill. Everything is on a slant. Sometimes TWO different slants at the same time, even. We almost didn’t buy the house, actually . . . because of the yard. It just wasn’t a yard for a gardener. And although there were some foundation plantings when we bought the house, it was just a wide open expanse of lawn with a whole lotta pine trees.

But we did buy it. And here we are, nearly 22 years later. With a garden.
A hidden garden!

Because, y’know . . . mostly people can’t SEE my garden. Not from the street, and not from the driveway. Just driving by, you’d never have a clue that it’s there. So it’s generally a surprise for guests . . . when I show them into the garden through the back gate. Or through my patio doors. They just . . . have no idea that my garden is, well . . . hidden away back there. And they usually gasp a little when they see it. (Which is really my favorite thing, in all honesty.)

When I share my “tales from the garden” here on the blog, I’m mostly showing you the views from my back gate or my patio. It’s the part of the garden that is most accessible. It’s the part you can see from inside the house. Or from the patio. It’s also the part of the garden that I spend most of my time and attention on.

But there’s another part . . . and I thought I’d share it with you today. It’s the hidden-garden-within-my-already-hidden garden.

The fenced in part of my backyard (where my garden IS) . . . is actually L-shaped. The parts of the garden you’re most familiar with (the ponds, the pergola, the patio) forms one side of the L. If you go around the corner of the house, though, and down a very steep hill (very steep), you’ll find another part of my garden. It’s on the north side of our house, where it tends to be cooler and greener and shadier. Lots of hostas. Lots of ferns. A couple of small patios. Very private. We can access this part of our garden through a front gate . . . or by walking down the hill . . . or through a patio door in our walk-out basement.

           

           

It’s really nothing fancy, as far as gardens go. When we moved in, there was Not One Plant back there. Just that walkout patio slab and a sad little planter. It’s too hilly and too shady to become a vegetable garden (although I’ve been considering it for years). It’s JoJo’s favorite spot to poop (just sayin). The yellow jackets frequently nest back there in the sedge. And birds were always flying into the patio doors (until we covered them in prism circle stickers) (which really do work). Last year it looked like a total disaster back there because it’s mostly hostas, and the deer ate EVERY one of them. (I couldn’t even go down there last summer; it was too heartbreaking.)

           

           

But this year . . . I love it. It’s a peaceful, shady little spot.
And nobody knows it’s there!
(But now YOU do.)