Ramblewood Garden Club awards June yard of the month

The Ramblewood Garden Club is pleased to award the June Yard of the Month to Steve and Sue Marchbanks who live and garden at 2459 Brookwood Drive. In a neighborhood of beautiful landscapes, the Marchbanks’ yard features a lush green front lawn of fescue and blue grass, which is complimented by red May blooming shrub roses and dark purple wave Petunias in window boxes at the front porch windows. The color contrast with the yellow house is bright and welcoming. The concrete driveway features a stamped brick patterned edge that leads to the back yard where on the side of the house a neat bed of perennial Vinca Minor (Periwinkle) provides just the right amount of easy care green space.

Steve takes care of the weeding and he gives his wife, Sue, the credit for coming up with the creative landscaping ideas. The front mulched and curving beds are filled with alternating boxwood (Buxus sempervirens) and the red shrub roses, along with Nandina domestica; commonly known as Heavenly bamboo, feather leaf Japanese maple (Acer palmatum), an evergreen juniper tree (Juniperus), purple blooming spiderwort (Tradescantia), pink creeping Phlox, and a red-leafed Bloodgood Japanese maple (Acer palmatum ‘Atropurpurem’) which fill the space. Variegated Liriope grows in small patches when the deer haven’t eaten it down to the nubbins.

Large rocks spaced alongside the driveway add interest and provide the site and sound of trickling water from a fountain there by the front walkway. Steve reports that the deer drink water from the fountain.

A yellow decorative container houses several varieties of colorful Coleus and a new large-leafed variety of Dusty Miller (Senecio cineraria) making for a most interesting potted attraction.

The backyard features large eastern white pine (Pinus strobes), white flowering dogwood (Cornus florida) trees, and a white spring blooming Star magnolia (Magnolia stellata) all lining the back fence row. Planted in the understory of this mulched bed are variegated Hosta, azaleas (Rhododendron), pink blooming Astible japonica, also known as False spirea or False Goat’s Beard, and Hydrangea. Russian sage (Salvia yangii) and ‘Gold Mop’ Threadbranch Cypress shrubs grow in a side bed along with a row of tall cone-shaped arborvitae (Thuja), American holly (Ilex opaca), and Leyland cypress (Cupressus x leylandii) shrubs. The Marchbanks’ birdfeeder contains a ‘hot’ variety mix of sunflower and other seeds that deter squirrels. This seed contains hot pepper flakes that the birds do not mind, but is distasteful to the squirrels. This tip is worth checking out if squirrels consume most of your bird food.

Interesting pieces of yard art are spaced minimally in the rock edged beds. A wooden structure gazebo provides a lovely place to rest with a nice fire pit nearby.

We congratulate the Marchbanks on their beautiful and well maintained yard and for making our city a more beautiful place to live. Shown above are the homeowners Sue and Steve Marchbanks and Ramblewood Garden Club members Anne Foust, Nadine Davis, and Dr. Gabiele Eckart.