APRIL YARD OF THE MONTH
The front yard of 2320 Ashland Avenue always looks great.
A pleasing combination of shrubbery, trees and vegetation makes this yard a solid winner.
When Stephanie Kelly moved into 2320 Ashland Avenue right after Thanksgiving 2002, she inherited a fully developed and very appealing landscape. “I can’t take any credit for it,” she says. “I just try to keep it going.” The previous owners, Whitney and Lauren Neal, had the vision and Stephanie carries on what they started. Because it’s on a well-travelled corner lot, there’s more than the usual amount of yard work to do.
A spring highlight of Stephanie’s yard are the red, pink and white azaleas spread out across the front of the house. As any experienced gardener knows, azaleas are not carefree plants. Even though Stephanie says she’s hardly done anything special to them, they’ve continued to bloom profusely, some of them even twice in a season. This year she topped them off with potting soil, but otherwise she’s taken a low maintenance approach. However, there’s a trimming in their near future, she says.
Boxwoods provide a solid backdrop along the front and side yards. They, too, will be receiving a hair cut soon. Two very large lorapetulum shrubs anchor each side of the house and provide contrasting color with the boxwoods. The Japanese red maple tree next to the front porch adds another pop of color against the boxwoods.
On the north side of house near the air conditioning unit are two trees that are actually overgrown hollies.
Along the El Campo Avenue side yard, red and yellow daylilies are lined up in front of the lorapetulum and boxwoods. In between the boxwoods is a bed of pink and red knockout roses. At the end of this run is a very large crepe myrtle and black-eyed Susans next to the driveway.
On the front porch is a planter of white pansies that will get changed out as the summer heat takes over.
The two well established oak trees facing Ashland Avenue are doing fine, but the large maple tree near the parkway on El Campo Avenue was beginning to fade. So, Stephanie engaged John Tomlinson, an arborist with Southern Charm Tree Care, to work on it. He’s been injecting it with a magic potion twice a year and the tree seems to be reviving.
“I’m always experimenting,” says Stephanie who works as the Development Manager for the American Cancer Society in Fort Worth. She is lucky to have adjacent neighbors Kanani Mahelona and Ann Wilson, both Yard of the Month past winners, to help her. “I can’t go wrong,” Stephanie says. The purple iris at the corner of Stephanie’s yard is from Ann.
“All my beds could use new soil, so that will be my next big undertaking,” according to Stephanie. “I haven’t done much except weed. Weeding is cathartic to me,” she admits. “It’s my therapy.” Her favorite weeding tools are the SIXCAR weed remover tool she ordered off Amazon. Another tool she likes is Fiskar’s Weeder Tool. Both help her break up soil that’s as hard as a rock.
For someone who grew up and raised her family in Pampa, Texas, Stephanie has embraced her Arlington Heights home as her forever home. “I just love it here,” she sighs.
Congratulations to Stephanie for being selected as AHNA’s first Yard of the Month in 2026. She received a $25 gift certificate to Archie’s Gardenland and a year’s membership in Arlington Heights Neighborhood Association, courtesy of AHNA.
If you see a yard you’d like to nominate for this award, please send the address to AHNA President Lori Murray Bosken at president@arlingtonheightsna.com.
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