Pam Panchak, Post-Gazette photos The Choder garden in Highland Park is a refuge for the busy couple. The gate leads to the Potager garden, where the Choders grow their vegetables. Click photo for larger image. Great Garden Contest Winners: 2005 2005 Great Garden Contest Photo Journal

Neither Jody Noble Choder nor her husband, Steve Choder, were looking to move from their Point Breeze home when a real estate agent friend encouraged them to visit a house for sale that was tucked tight along the Allegheny River in Highland Park.

Out of simple curiosity, they went, but as fate would have it, they loved the place and bought it in 2001. When they moved into the home, which sits behind a tall privacy fence, there was mostly grass and large mature trees on the site, but no gardens, says Choder.

After years of work by the couple, who designed the area themselves and enlisted help from landscapers for the larger projects, the garden has evolved into a lush hideaway that won an honorable mention in the Urban category of the 2005 Great Gardens Contest.

The home, which is behind the old City of Pittsburgh asphalt plant in Highland Park, has become a refuge for the couple. Jody is a lawyer for Duquesne Light, and Steve runs a drug and alcohol rehabilitation program for UPMC.

One of two identical homes built for the lockmasters at the Highland Park Dam by the Army Corps of Engineers in 1908, the large brick four-square sits high above the river bank; so high in fact, that Choder says not a drop of water reached them during last year's severe flooding. The property encompasses about three-quarters of an acre, but because of the private setting, it seems like much more.

Visitors, who enter through a large gate, cross a bubbling pond that wouldn't hold water when the Choders purchased the home. Now, several ponds and streams grace the property, filled with water plants and fish. The bubbling water also serves to drown out the traffic noise from the nearby highway.

Large trees shade most of the site, where Choder has been busy constructing garden "rooms."

"I tried to build a room and wait and then build another room," says Choder with a laugh. "But I got ahead of myself. ... I think it turned out OK."

To the left of the entryway is a "sort-of" formal garden. The brick and stonework was done by her husband. Choder concocted the plantings.

"I like the formal lines and formal bones of a formal garden, but we aren't formal people," she says. She describes what she came up with as her "shabby chic garden."

A large fountain is surrounded by boxwood, impatiens, serviceberry, astilbe and azaleas. The plot has the "relaxed" feel that Choder was aiming for.

Toward the back of the property, Choder has placed her collection of Buddha statues along with many kinds of hosta, one of her favorites.

Jody Nobel Choder and Digger relax in the pool house. Click photo for larger image.

"I like hosta because there are so many kinds of them. It's hard to get bored with them," she says.

At the back of the property, steep steps lead down to an area where chairs and a fire pit are located. Although this piece of land is still owned by the Army Corps of Engineers, the Choders have been given permission to use it.

Back up the steps and across a bridge is a large meditation hut. The steps leading up to the hut are made of logs standing on end. Choder says she didn't think the design -- concocted and built by Steve -- would work, but is, in fact, thrilled with the steps.

The hut, which is on stilts, looks out over the river and is filled with informal furnishings and Asian sculpture. Although it is a cozy place to sit, Choder says, she doesn't do that much because once she gets up on the platform, she always sees something that needs to be done in the garden below.

The property also features a large pool house and an enclosed "Potager" garden where Choder grows vegetables in neat, raised beds. This season, she's harvested heirloom tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, cauliflower, lettuce, cucumbers, zucchini, radishes, carrots, beets, yellow beans, corn and peas. Still to come are pumpkins and gourds.

The couple have a great garden relationship because Steve prefers to do the hardscaping and new projects while Jody tends to the day-to-day chores.

Accompanied by dog Digger and cat Max, Choder spends about two hours each weekday night just tidying up the garden.

"On the weekend, I do everything else, moving things, cutting things back," she says. "It's happy work."

She visits local nurseries constantly. Her current favorites are Plumline in Murrysville, where she gets ideas, and Brenckles' in Reserve because of its large selection of annuals. It was at Brenckles' that Choder picked up the entry form for the garden competition.

She has planted many Japanese maples around the property and is very interested in conifers, although she is limited to what she can plant by the shade of the large, established trees.

When asked what's to come in the future, Choder turns reflective.

"I think [the garden] needs to mature. It's a very young garden at the moment. I'm anxious to see how it matures. I think I have good bones at this point. I'm sure I'll be constantly moving things, I'm constantly tweaking it, but I'm just about done and will have to let it grow and flourish."