The sound of gurgling water surrounds you in this North Side garden. Each twist of the homemade stone paths was a pleasant surprise -- an unusual perennial, a small ornamental tree, a pleasing combination of annuals and perennials. And then, a late-summer showstopper -- arches made from pink and purple Rose of Sharon intertwined over a path.

But the gardener was nowhere in sight.

That was what judges for the PG's Great Gardens contest found four years ago when they visited Astrid Kersten's garden. Although it was lovely, it didn't win -- then.

This year was a different story. Ms. Kersten returned early from a monthlong visit to her native Holland and led judges from the Post-Gazette and Pittsburgh Botanic Garden through the garden that wraps around her picturesque foursquare. One judge was lucky enough to see it from the rear second-story porch, where Ms. Kersten often critiques her handiwork:

"Sometimes when I'm working down there it looks right," she says with just a trace of a Dutch accent. "Then I come up here and say 'Oh, no.' "

And what was already good becomes even better.

This year, her second as a finalist, Ms. Kersten was chosen as the runner-up in the small garden category of the eighth annual contest. Since 2006, she has made several big changes in the rear and side gardens. But none have detracted from the sense of peaceful seclusion a visitor feels here in this urban oasis bordered by a steep, wooded hillside and green wooden fences.

Ms. Kersten is not afraid of change -- she cut down several of her Rose of Sharon arches to open up the side garden and let more light in. She's also practical: Removing those shrubby members of the Hibiscus family, and a section of fence "gave me a path to haul rocks," she says.

She has been adding and subtracting, moving and tweaking this garden since she and her husband, Mohammed Sidky, moved here in 1989. Then, the back yard had nothing much other than hosta "and some sorry grass," she says. She began hauling in flagstone and pea gravel to create paths that wind through the space and two small raised ponds to supplement the tiny water feature the previous owner left behind (she calls it a bird bath).

She gained sun when a neighbor's large tree fell in 2003, and she began adding shrubs and small trees along the paths and around the edges. In addition to several hollies, oakleaf hydrangeas and Rose of Sharon, she planted a white birch, buckthorn, crabapples, a dwarf peach tree, contorted hazelnut, weeping mulberries, and a dogwood and a variegated Japanese maple.

Although they weren't obvious when the judges visited, she says she has tucked in white and yellow daffodils, hyacinth and her favorite spring bulb of all, alliums.

"Not many tulips," she says, shattering my Dutch garden stereotype.

Providing foliage interest are Christmas and cinnamon ferns, hostas, liriope, 'Jack Frost' brunnera, and many other perennials. Her snake-root bloomed for the first time ever this year, in late August.

In spring, purple Siberian iris bloom around her raised ponds, which are almost 3 feet deep but only 1 foot in the ground. Herons and other predators have never troubled the goldfish that overwinter there, but one large furry pest is a regular visitor.

"I have a horrible groundhog who eats the top of my weeping mulberry," she says forlornly. "I can see it shaking from his weight."

Ms. Kersten would never harm the rodent but does admit to cultivating around his favorite nesting spot in hopes he'll move on. She also buys praying mantis eggs to battle insect pests and has a rain barrel from Nine Mile Run Watershed, a compost pile and a worm composter.

Everywhere in her garden are interesting little vignettes. One of the newest is the bed in front of a section of wooden fence inset with old stained glass. Her engineer brother, visiting from Holland, crafted the unique backdrop with glass she found at a flea market. Variegated holly, hosta and coral bells fill the new bed and climbing hydrangea clambers up the corner of the house.

When the gardener is away, her husband tends the space. He won't weed, she says, but "he is an excellent waterer."

Luckily for us, the gardener was home when the judges came this time. And what a Dutch treat she had in store for us.

Looking for more from the Post-Gazette? Join PG+, our members-only web site. You'll get exclusive sports content, opinion, financial information, discounts from retailers and restaurants, and more. Our introduction to PG+ gives you all the details.