Sunday, July 26, 2009

Cambridge Area Yard of the Month


Thanks to the Old Man's green thumb, we've got one of the best-looking landscapes in town, and we've again received the Cambridge Area Beautification Council's Special Recognition Award.
This is the second time we've gotten the certificate in the 10 years we've been working on the house and yard.
Our newest flower bed was completed today, almost a week after our names appeared in the paper.
Everyone in the family helped make this bed and everyone loves it!
The bed is the focal point of our new on-street parking pulloff and widened driveway. The concrete for these new areas was poured last week (the day of the choking incident).
The new bed features a huge sandstone boulder which was retrieved from my grandparents' farm in Noble County. It was a cornerstone from the foundation of a wash house on the century-and-a-half-old Watson family homestead. Another accent in the bed is a sandstone address marker that David carved when he worked for a local stone yard.
A professional landscaper for more than two decades and gardening enthusiast, David knows his plants and tonight we made a list of all the perennials, bushes and trees in our yard.
Our newest bed - full sun - features lemon balm, red cardinal flower, China girl holly, Asiatic lily, Stella de Oro daylilies, coral bells, variegated liriope, mums, bells flower, hibiscus (annual), whiteconeflower and blanketflower.
Other perennials around our yard include autumn joy sedum, hens and chicks, purple aster, red and yellow daylilies, purple coneflower, green liriope, at least 10 different varieties of hostas, double knockout rose, old-fashioned yellow rose, Fourth of July rose, Pom Pom Scot's Pine, Colorado Blue Spruce (tree), Cherokee Chief red flowering variegated dogwood (tree), rhododendron, dwarf burning bush, blue sedum, Indian paintbrush, Mimosa (tree), iris, black-eyed Susa, lilac, spiderwort, zagreb coreopsis, hydrangea, oriental poppy, dianthus, green and white euonymus, green and yellow euonymous, lamb's ear, red yarrow, clematis, loosestrife, Dwarf Alberta Spruce, Alaska daisy, crimson pygmy barberry, wand flower, lamium, blueberries, Ravenna grass, sedge grass, mock orange, Texas scarlet quince, ostrich fern, and blanket flower, Little Princess spirea, and Creeping Jenny.
We have lots of annuals too including geraniums, petunias, marigolds, verbena, salvia, dahlia, bacopa, million bells, coleus, lobelia, begonias.
Plants are like clothes for the yard and I think David and I both are always looking for new places to put plants ... but we've run out of closets!
Our backyard, though seldom seen by the passerby, rivals our front yard. So if you're in the neighborhood, take a walk around the house and enjoy!

1 comment:

  1. Congrats on the honor!
    I was looking through some of the old Harper pictures and there are some Watsons. I think my grandma's cousin was a Watson and I kinda remember my dad saying there was a connection with your family.

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