Crossword Genius

Flattened garden ever rising, to some extent (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

evened

'flattened' is the definition.
(evened out or made uniform)

'garden ever rising to some extent' is the wordplay.
'to some extent' indicates a hidden word.
'rising' shows that the letters should be reversed in order (going up in a down clue).
'deneve' is hidden in the letters of 'garden ever'.
'deneve' reversed gives 'EVENED'.

(Other definitions for evened that I've seen before include "Levelled" , "Made smooth or equalised" , "Made smooth and regular" , "Made level" .)

I've seen this clue in The Guardian.
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