Unwanted widgets appearing in background

Since finally upgrading to Tahoe, I found the new default relationship with widgets to be a challenge. I don't use them except at odd times. It used to be possible to see them only by swiping the left side of my track pad, they would appear and I could put them away after a cursory glance. However, now, despite my having chosen that they should only appear in Stage Manager -- which at least gets them off my desktop -- they nevertheless still appear when I click on the background to look for a file.

I don't want them in background, ever. I ONLY want them in the same location in which they used to be -- hidden on the left-hand side, like a pull-out menu. How do I revert to the same widget storage as before ?

Thank you.