Closing out the year with flowers still in bloom, December’s Yard of the Month is an example of turning the front yard into an eye-catching garden that is also low-maintenance and drought-resistant. Ten years ago, Spring Lake Garden Club featured this same home, a 1920s structure on Nance Street between San Antonio Street and Martin Luther King Drive, where Jenny Powell has lived for 18 years. In 2013, Powell’s landscape consisted of numerous potted plants lining the steps of her front porch, but after screening the porch she concentrated on planting directly in the ground. The shallow yard allows for a gravel path behind curbside plantings, but no lawn to water or mow.
Tall wire cages elevate pink coral vine (and a couple of tomato cages near the house) and provide Powell’s garden with as much privacy as large shrubs, but with the added benefit of flowers and butterflies. Some less cold-tolerant plants remain in large blue ceramic pots which can be moved to protection in cold weather, but meanwhile, these containers conserve precious water. Powell cuts back all plants in the spring and renews mulch in the beds, but densely-planted beds shield roots from harsh sun in summer and insulate plants from cold and wind in winter. Still, occasional browsing by deer (yes, so close to downtown) threaten blooms of her roses — one red knock-out and a pink Belinda’s Dream — as well as non-native plants.
A tall yellow esperanza (yellow bells) anchors one front corner of the yard, joined by a curbside line of other smaller flowers — red turk’s cap, blue plumbago, purple lantana and spiderwort — with a crape myrtle (watermelon red in bloom) and nandina’s red berries in the background. An entry sidewalk midway through the yard divides front beds, with coral vines and red bougainvillea on the right behind a massive limestone boulder. This decorative rock was gift from friends at Cafe on the Square where Powell served for many years.
