Southern Gardening Guide

Spruce up your garden with fresh ideas and simple how-tos

Hidden Garden

This charming front yard, surrounded by lush hedges, is an oasis of privacy in the big city.

Photography Ralph Anderson, Article by Steve Bender

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A Secret Garden

And what a feast it is! Between the hedge and house lies a secret garden of barely 1,200 square feet that you enter from the driveway. Herbs and flowers spill onto its floor of slate pavers set into gravel. Pots of all sizes and shapes decorate the steps and nestle among the borders. In a corner, chairs and a table beckon you to sit. A few feet away, a fountain gurgles while bearded irises and old roses hang a sweet-scented curtain in the still spring air.