In San Diego, what we want are the rays, right? We joke about paying a sunshine tax for living here. When it comes to gardens, we’re as fixated on light exposure as we are about where to buy the best tacos.

But San Diego has its iconoclasts, and Rachel Smith is among them. She lives in a two-story 1912 Craftsman bungalow in Burlingame with a rare, magical shade garden. She created it after moving into the house in 2008. It wasn’t because she didn’t have enough sun; in fact, her backyard has a southern exposure and the front yard, even with its northern exposure, still gets plenty of light.

No, it was a deliberate choice. In my new story for The San Diego Union-Tribune you can read about how she went about creating it and why. It may just make you think twice about the garden you aspire to have.