Call him the accidental gardener.

Max Levine didn't set out to create beautifully layered gardens in the front and back of his Squirrel Hill home. But a couple of unrelated events prompted him to take more interest in his yard.

Martha Rial, Post-Gazette Max Levine and his wife, Hilary Spatz, have spent years creating a lush environment at their home. In the back yard, there are six varieties of hydrangea, three kinds of dogwoods and virunum, two types of euonymus, and dahlias, like the one at top. The front of the house, left, has an Asian feel, with Japanese maples, a dozen types of hostas and wisteria. Click photo for larger image. Great Garden Photo Journal Index to stories on Great Garden Contest Winners 2004

In 1991, a sewer line break destroyed the landscaping in front. Three years later, the arrival of Oscar, a black Shar-pei puppy, meant Levine had to finish fencing in his back yard. Down came the scrub trees that barely screened the yard from condominiums in back. Up went a few Colorado blue spruces that today help enclose the 35-foot-wide yard and separate the green oasis from its neighbors.

Each year since, Levine and his wife, Hilary Spatz, have added a few more shrubs and perennials, many tiny specimens bought at the May Market plant sale and auction held in nearby Mellon Park.

"There is no grand design. It developed bit by bit," says Levine, a divorce lawyer who works with his wife.

"It's kind of a hobby. We work a lot of hours. It's great if you have an extra 20 minutes ..."

"... or four or five hours," Spatz interjected.

"People want to know how he gardens. I say, 'He doesn't golf,'" she said.

Working without any real plan, Levine created two distinct spaces. The front garden, which complements the stucco-clad Modern exterior, has a more Asian feel, with several kinds of Japanese maples, a dozen types of hosta, and wisteria climbing on a trellis over the driveway. The only color comes from white impatiens and pots of pink and white begonias and "Black Magic" elephant's ear (Colocasia esculentum). A weeping birch drapes gracefully over the gate leading to the back.

In addition to several more Japanese maples, the backyard garden boasts six varieties of hydrangea, three kinds of dogwoods and viburnum, and two types of euonymus, along with daphne, smokebush, butterfly bush, rose of Sharon, mountain laurel and bamboo. 'Skyrocket' juniper and weeping Alaskan cypress repeat the color and texture of the blue spruce in the back.

	Martha Rial, Post-Gazette A varigated Japanese maple tree, above, is one of Levine's favorites. Click photo for larger image.

Mature shrubs take up most of the beds, which run along each side and jut out in the center, near a set of steps made from pressure-treated wood. A 6-foot-tall and wide specimen of Harry Lauder's walking stick -- one of the couple's first purchases -- dominates the center bed, where their three children used to sled. When they outgrew their sleds, the garden grew to fill the space.

The same thing happened in the far back, where a children's swing and dog run used to stand. Several years ago, the thick wisteria vine that encircled the dog run pole was trained onto a new, Asian-style pergola and swing. And the dying grass around it was replaced with ferns, pachysandra and gladiolas.

These days, large seed pods hang from the wisteria, the remains of foot-long white racemes that covered it in the spring. All the flowers in the backyard garden are white, a decision the couple made several years ago.

"A lot of texture, a lot of class, not much color. I call it the Ralph Lauren look," Spatz said, pointing out how some of their white cleome, an annual that reseeds itself, had begun to revert to pink.

"Look at my invasion," she said, clipping off the pink blooms.

White dahlias with pink edges add to the garden's sophisticated look; Spatz digs up the tubers and the elephant's ears and stores them in the basement through the winter.

"My design was to keep something always blooming that's white," Levine said.

The couple enjoys the view of the garden from their deck, which holds a large potted philodendron and a jade plant that was tiny when Spatz rescued it from her late grandmother's apartment. Candles in lanterns hung here and there add romance at night.

True to form, the accidental gardener has no plans to change his garden -- barring accidents, of course.

"I think it's pretty stabilized," he said. "We're out of room."