MAY YARD OF THE MONTH
by Karen Lang-Ferrell
Kelsy and Christian Gentry at 2117 Ashland are the winners of the May 2017 AHNA Yard of the Month Award.
They love their 1929 English Tudor home, which Christian purchased in 2009; Kelsy moved into the home in 2011, when the couple married. They both wanted a landscape design that was true to the period of the home, so they retired the desertscape that came with the house for a more traditional approach. With the help of an architect who is a family friend, they opted for a symmetrical, tiered landscape design, fronted by Texas’s favorite turf, St. Augustine. The front garden space, which is currently planted with white pansies, changes to suit seasonally-relevant flowers. Well-manicured boxwood shrubs provide angular punctuation for the flower beds, and introduce the third-tier mass planting, a combination of Maiden ornamental grasses and red knockout roses – roses which fortunately escaped the blight that affected so many knockout roses last year. The roses and native grasses are excellent low-maintenance choices and once established, require low-to-moderate watering. Holly bushes serve as anchor plantings at the corners of the garden, with smaller holly bushes in large decorative pots framing the front door. Two October Glory Maple trees provide shade from the late afternoon sun.
Christian and Kelsy enlist the help of a gardening service in the spring and the fall to change the seasonal flowers, since the couple works long hours. Christian and Kelsy enjoy plant shopping trips to Archie’s Gardenland, Calloways and Lowe’s. Kelsy and Christian have found the staff at Lowe’s to provide good turf advice.
The Gentry’s share their home with a 12-year old Billie, their Staffordshire/Bull Terrier mix furry friend. They appreciate the varied nature of the historical homes in Arlington Heights and enjoy walking the neighborhood.