Editor's note: This story concludes our series showcasing last year's Beautiful Gardens winners. We'll select this year's winners later this growing season. Watch for a call for entries soon.
Poor soil, scant sunlight and a small enclosed space hardly sounds like a recipe for an award-winning garden.
But that hasn't stopped Stephanie and Fred Groth from creating one.
"We have very little to work with, but we've done the best we can," said Stephanie of the secluded oasis in their Eagan backyard. "It's our little sanctuary."
Their garden isn't visible from the street or the house next door. It's their secret — a place where they can enjoy breakfast, a good book or a glass of wine, surrounded by flowers and lush foliage. It's also where they relax with their family and friends during the outdoor season.
"After those bleak months of winter, it's so nice to have color," Stephanie said.
There was no backyard garden when the Groths bought their house more than 20 years ago. In fact, there was barely a backyard. "It's small with a lot of trees, and slopes steeply up at the back and sides — like being down in a little valley," Fred said of the site.
The sunniest spot in the backyard was a patch of lawn in the corner at the top of a hill. "It was a useless little space," recalled Stephanie. The couple's sons, now grown, occasionally sunbathed there when they still lived at home. "But they had to lie at a tilt," she recalled.