NOVEMBER YARD OF THE MONTH
The yard at 4016 Dexter is always decorated festively throughout the year.
When Lisa and David Abbett bought their home on Dexter Avenue in 2018, they inherited a well-established landscape. Unfortunately, the big freeze of 2021 wiped out everything except two large evergreen trees on each side of the house. And those are a little iffy. “We’re not sure if they’ll make it,” says David who says they were planted back in 2009 when the house was built. “We love them, but they’re not looking great, so we’ll see.”
David turned to Archie’s Gardenland for advice about what to plant in the front since it faces due south and gets full sun. He bought yellow Sunshine Ligustrums and fills in the bottom of the bed seasonably with Mexican heather, marigolds and petunias. Knock out roses fill up the two large pots by the porch steps. Nearby are pots of light violet and white mums. Two small flower boxes on the porch ledge are filled with a mix of fall flowers.
David, who is the Director of Supplier Quality Management at Lockheed Martin, says he inherited his love for working in the yard from this father. “I love working outside–it’s a Zen thing for me.” After failing to get any grass to grow on the dark east side of his house, David planted a bed of crepe myrtle, crimson yucca and lantana.
While the yard is all David’s, the decorations are all Lisa’s. “I do what she tells me to do,” David says. Lisa, who is a digital learning specialist at Fort Worth ISD, loves their front porch and says she and David spend a lot of time sitting there, along with Twyla, a feral cat who adopted the Abbetts. Lisa has built a pyramid of dried flowers and grass plumes inside a wooden wine cask she brought back from Italy. Sprinkled throughout the front are colorful Mexican tin toys, including a turquoise truck, the Abbetts bring back from a favorite outdoor store they visit between Fredericksburg and Johnson City.
As AHNA’s November Yard of the Month, Lisa and David 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.
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