AUGUST AHNA MEMBERSHIP MEETING
Tuesday August 16, 6:30pm
Fort Worth Firefighters Hall
3855 Tulsa Way at Crestline Rd.
Nominations from the floor for next year’s AHNA Executive Board will be taken at this meeting. AHNA bylaws require all board candidates to be regular AHNA members who have been in regular attendance and are in good standing of the Association. A regular member must reside inside the boundaries of AHNA, not just own property there. Any regular AHNA member may make a nomination from the floor. Elections will be held at the October 18 AHNA membership meeting.
Serving on the AHNA board is rewarding, but requires a commitment of a sizeable amount of time. If you are interested in getting more involved in AHNA, the best first step is to get on a committee. To explore all your options, please email president@arlingtonheightsna.com.
Guest speaker: Chris Reale, owner-operator of the beloved West Side institution Roy Pope Grocery. Reale will walk us through the recent transformation of the grocery’s 80 year-old building into today’s vibrant, modern neighborhood food emporium and meetup hub. Reale will also touch on his team’s second major restoration project: the Paris Coffee Shop on Magnolia Avenue.
Special thanks to Roy Pope Grocery for providing delicious free bites for this month’s meeting. Please support our local restaurants and businesses!
AUGUST YARD OF THE MONTH
This month’s award-winning yard at 2105 Carleton Avenue is a perfect example of what you can plant to withstand drought, unrelenting heat, and the scorching sun.
When Monika and Derrick Merchant bought the hopelessly dilapidated house next door to theirs in 2016, they initially planned to build a new home there. After demolition they decided to connect up the empty lot with theirs, resulting in an extra big yard for their kids to play in. But, what to do with the large empty space between the fence and the sidewalk?
Derrick didn’t want more grass to mow, so he turned to his brother Chad to help him put in a low maintenance xeriscape they now affectionately refer to as The Rock Garden. It helped that Chad, a trained horticulturalist, owns Merchant Landscaping Company.
First step was digging deep enough to put in a layer of weed barrier cloth, along with a drip line for the plants and bubblers for the trees. Together Monika and Derrick selected a variety of variegated yuccas and agaves, along with sotols, Mexican feather grass, Texas sage and lantana, and artfully arranged them around an Arizona Cypress and a Chitalpa tree, a cross between a desert willow and a catalpa. A generous top dress of large river rock from Whiz-Q Stone provided the final finishing touch.
Despite this summer’s punishing heat, The Rock Garden is abloom, courtesy of the red yuccas, the Chitalpa tree, and the recently purchased purple rose of Sharon at the northern end of the property.
The Merchants were named this month’s Yard of the Month winner for The Rock Garden in front of 2105 Carleton, but the landscape in front of their home at 2109 Carleton is nothing to sniff at. This side of the two properties is mostly in shade and includes a number of trees that came with the house, including a purple Mexican plum tree, two pecan trees near the house, and two Shumard oaks closer to the street. The Merchants filled out the beds near the front door with dense yew, pittosporum and ligustrum.
The Merchants received a $25 gift certificate to Archie’s Gardenland, courtesy of Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association, and a free year’s membership in AHNA.
If you’d like to nominate a yard, even your own, please send the address to president@arlingtonheightsna.com.
NO JULY MEMBERSHIP MEETING
There will be no AHNA membership meeting in July. We’ll miss seeing everyone, but can’t wait for the next membership meeting on Tuesday August 16 at 6:30pm at the Fort Worth Firefighters Hall, 3855 Tulsa Way @ Crestline. See you then!
JULY YARD OF THE MONTH
Two giant non-flowering mulberry trees at 2300 Thomas Place create welcome summer shade that invites you to set a spell.
“Our yard is like our third pet,” chuckles Kathryn McGlinchey who is the mastermind and main caretaker of AHNA’s July Yard of the Month. Husband Parnell shares watering duties. When they both leave town, they board their pets, but have to hire someone to water the plants.
Pots of purple hearts, ferns, begonias, coral bells, vinca, cast iron plants and Creeping Jenny are scattered throughout the landscape. Cross vine climbs up the front face of the house and intertwines with climbing white roses and hyacinth bean vine. A purple climbing rose creeps up the driveway wall. A pot of ornamental cabbage left over from the spring continues to look good despite the heat. Kathryn’s motto: “if you keep growing, I’m going to let you live.”
After a major underground pipe broke under the house, the McGlinchey’s were forced to move out while repairs were made. Returning after nine months, Kathryn was faced with a landscape that was mostly dead. In 2016, she replanted almost the entire garden, including re-sodding the lawn.
“We had always had a hard time getting grass to grow in the front and we thought it was because the mulberry trees were blocking the sun,” says Kathryn. She called in Lawn Doctor who diagnosed grubworms as the problem. After two applications of insecticide, “it was like night and day.” Even Parnell, initially a doubter, is now a believer.
The newest addition is a Pride of Barbados plant that the McGlincheys made a special trip to Austin to pick up. Also known as Mexican bird of paradise, the bright orange flowers attract butterflies and are a nod to UT where both McGlincheys graduated from law school. The purple plants throughout the landscape are in honor of TCU, Parnell’s undergrad alma mater.
PLANT & LANDSCAPE SEMINAR THIS MONDAY JUNE 27
Jeanette Anders has been busy this summer re-doing the landscape at Thomas Place Community Center. You will be amazed at what she’s done.
If you’re stumped about what to plant in your shade garden, or how to build a raised bed garden, or just need a little inspiration of how to perk up your landscape, plan on attending a special hands-on workshop:
Monday June 27
5:00pm until 6:00pm
Thomas Place Community Center
4237 Lafayette Ave.
Led by plant and irrigation expert Jeanette Anders, the seminar will start with a quick power point inside the community center and move outdoors where Jeanette will use the Thomas Place gardens to demonstrate what to plant and where. Anders has more than forty years of experience as a gardener, including eleven years at Botanic Garden and fifteen years in the Parks and Rec Department at the City of Fort Worth.
This workshop is free to AHNA members. Please RSVP to president@arlingtonheightsna.com. If you aren’t an AHNA member, you can join today by going to arlingtonheightsna.com and click on “Become a Member” on the left side of the home page. Dues are $25/year, $20/year for 65 and over.
MEMBERSHIP MEETING TUESDAY JUNE 21
Please join us for our monthly meeting:
TUESDAY JUNE 21 at 6:30 pm
Fort Worth Firefighters Hall
3855 Tulsa Way at Crestline Rd.
GUEST SPEAKER: You read him almost every day in the Fort Worth Star Telegram and on social media. You see him almost every Sunday morning on WFAA’s “Inside Texas Politics.” It’s BUD KENNEDY, our guest speaker for the evening. As a Star Telegram writer and columnist for more than three decades, Bud has covered sports, politics, and especially food. It’s safe to say he knows just about everything there is to know about Fort Worth. “Ask Bud Anything About Food or Fort Worth” is the title of his presentation, followed by Q & A from the audience.
Everyone is welcome!
Special thanks to TOKYO CAFE for providing tasty bites for this month’s meeting. Please support our local restaurants! tokyocafefw.com
JUNE YARD OF THE MONTH
This month’s winning yard at 4536 Calmont Avenue is a paradise for butterflies, bees and hummingbirds.
When Britt and Bob Whitney got married in 2014, they were living in Coppell, but wanted to move somewhere that was “non-suburbia.” They fell in love with Fort Worth and bought their first home at the corner of Calmont Ave. and Hulen St. in July 2016. What they like most about Arlington Heights is that every home is unique.
The previous owner of their home at 4536 Calmont was in the landscaping business, so the Whitneys inherited a well-established landscape that included a large magnolia tree, two juniper trees, red yuccas, a large lorapetalum shrub, salvia, Texas sage, and grasses. It fit perfectly with Britt’s vision of planting to attract butterflies, bees, and hummingbirds. Britt added a large pot of coleus on the front porch, lantanas and multi-colored pentas in the beds, and a few small rose shrubs. She was crushed to lose a large blue agave during a severe winter freeze, but replaced it with a large variegated agave that she now covers when the weather gets super cold. Lee’s Lawn and Garden takes care of Britt’s mulching and trimming.
The Whitneys proudly fly the flags of their respective colleges: Oklahoma State for Britt and University of Kansas for Bob.
After moving in, Britt experienced a bit of serendipity when her grandmother who lives in Carrollton recognized Britt’s Arlington Heights home in a vintage photograph posted on a friend’s Facebook page. When Britt tracked down the people who posted the photo, she discovered they were the second owners of her home. At Britt’s invitation, they came to tour their old homestead which had changed dramatically. They showed Britt and Bob where all the original rooms, including a telephone room, had been.
The Whitneys received a $25 gift certificate to Archie’s Gardenland, courtesy of Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association, and a free year’s membership in AHNA.
If you’d like to nominate a yard, even your own, please send the address to president@arlingtonheightsna.com.