On a visit to Carol Papas' garden in O'Hara, the gardener purposefully directs the photographer away from herself and toward her garden. Carol Papas is framed by her garden, which will be on the Audubon Secret Garden Tour. "Show my plants," she says with a quick smile. "That's what it's all about." Carol Papas is framed by her garden, which will be on the Audubon Secret Garden Tour. And in her garden, one of five that will be featured during the Audubon Society of Western Pennsylvania Secret Garden Tour on Monday, plants rule. They're mostly perennials, lushly planted, but with a good bone structure of trees and conifers and a hardscape constructed by her father, stone mason Anthony Castelli. It's a garden that mirrors the spunky, welcoming personality of the gardener. While Mrs. Papas is quick to credit those who have helped her along the way, it is clear that the vision for the space is hers alone. She labors on a difficult plot, less than an acre, on a steep hillside. The vast majority of the garden is in the rear of the dwelling. When she and her husband, Spiro, moved in, there was no garden to speak of, and she wasn't a gardener. These days, she's not only a certified master gardener who gives classes at Phipps, she operates her own small business, doing garden designs that specialize in mixed borders, and also some custom containers for a limited number of clients. Laboring on a warm, sunny day to get the garden in shape for the tour, and for a large graduation party for one of her three daughters, Mrs. Papas is clearly happy in her space. Dr. Spiro Papas, who is a surgeon, has on occasion helped prune a few things, something he is good at, his wife says, laughing. Her children, including a son, pitch in from time to time, but Mrs. Papas is protective of her little space. It's been a peaceful refuge for her over the years. When she first took on the project, she got help with the "bones" of the space from Lindsay Bond Totten, who did the drawing for her about 15 years ago. (Ms. Totten is now the president of the Botanic Garden of Western Pennsylvania and no longer does private garden design.) The drawing helped her incorporate trees, like the Stewartia that she knew she wanted but wasn't sure where to place. Ms. Totten also was the one who came up with the idea to use conifers as a buffer between two levels, separating the pool area from the upper garden. Her father constructed the lovely circular patio, which uses bricks cut in half and set on end. The patio was a copy of one she'd seen in a photograph. Ms. Totten took the circle idea for the patio and elaborated on the theme, giving it a rippling effect into the surrounding landscape, using circular cement borders filled with grass. After that, it was up to Mrs. Papas to plant. She created lush beds filled with perennials such as rich, sky-blue campanulas, carmine-red poppies, astilbe, hosta, roses and clematis. Her pots are also works of art. She incorporates unusual things in them; she hates to repeat herself. It's her theory that containers are one thing that you shouldn't be afraid to experiment with. After all, they are ephemeral. If you don't like what you create, you can always change it. Tearing a pot apart is much easier than moving a tree you've put in the wrong place. One lush pot is full of Echeverias and succulents; another makes whimsical use of the old houseplant standard snake plant ( A pool was added to the la
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