Evil country garden evacuated (6)
I believe the answer is:
malign
'evil' is the definition.
(I know that evil can be written as malign)
'country garden evacuated' is the wordplay.
'country' becomes 'mali' (Mali is an example).
'evacuated' suggests removing the centre (internal letters are evacuated from the word).
'garden' with its centre removed is 'gn'.
'mali'+'gn'='MALIGN'
(Other definitions for malign that I've seen before include "Evil, baleful" , "Of ill intent" , "Evil-natured" , "Vilify, denigrate." , "Ill-disposed - defame" .)