AUGUST YARD OF THE MONTH
In less than three months, the landscape at 4337 Birchman Avenue has been transformed into a whimsical English garden using native and adaptive perennials.
What makes August’s Yard of the Month so amazing is that it’s been planned, designed and installed in such a short time. Elizabeth Starr moved to the vintage English Tudor home in early May of this year. Thirty days later, the remarkable makeover of her side yard facing Ashland Avenue was completed, featuring a variety of colorful flowers brimming over the beds. Then, it was time to tackle the front yard.
It has been the ultimate do-it-yourself project carried out by Elizabeth, along with her brother William Starr and father Mark Starr, both of whom are seasoned amateur landscapers. The project has been a family collaboration, but Elizabeth credits William and Mark as the masterminds. William and Mark created the plan and did the heavy lifting to make it happen. No professionals have been involved, except for an arborist brought in to consult about the damaged and dying Bradford pear tree. While Elizabeth went to work every day as the Chief Financial Officer of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, William and Mark labored in the yard, long after the days began to heat up. “We wanted to create a whimsical garden that reflected the architecture of this historic vintage home,” explains William. The goal was to create different textures, heights, shapes and colors, using native and highly adaptive perennials, according to Mark.
Only a few plants that were in the original landscape remain, including a very large crepe myrtle on the west side of the home, some orange daylilies, and two large mulberry trees near Birchman Avenue. The aforementioned Bradford pear was removed at the recommendation of the arborist who advised that it had been irreparably damaged during a cold snap and had “lived its life.” A new tree is being planned to replace it in the coming months. It will not be a Bradford pear.
William and Mark enlarged the front yard plant beds, curving them with new metal edging. The soil was substantially amended with expanded shale, crushed granite and dried molasses and topped off with Texas hardwood mulch. Then, the beds were planted with a wide variety of perennials, including society garlic, wild bergamot, Siberian and Japanese iris, coneflowers, rock roses, gaura, pincushion flowers, bulbine, agastache, tickseed, skullcap, Mexican petunias, primroses, dianthus, blue astra, blackfoot daisies, purslane and ice plants.
Two very large pots of hydrangeas are thriving on the front porch. To the side of them are Sky Pencil hollies. Texas sage is planted below the windows and is framed by cleyera. Oakleaf hollies screen the wood fence. For a colorful accent, a Japanese Green Maple tree was planted in the east bed. In the center of the east lawn is a large stand of red salvia.
For now, everything is lovingly hand watered until the broken automatic irrigation system gets fixed. Coming soon.
Elizabeth counts herself lucky to have the help and support of her talented family and considers herself even luckier to be living in the “best neighborhood.” Having interned at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, she is thrilled with her new job at the Modern because it combines her longstanding passion for the arts with her robust business background gained from her years of working at Ernst & Young in Dallas.
Congratulations to the Starr family for the beautiful yard they created in record time all by themselves. They 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 an award-worthy yard, even your own, please let us know by sending the address to president@arlingtonheightsna.com.
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