When the Frost is on the Punkin

By JAMES WHITCOMB RILEY

…They’s something kindo’ harty-like about the atmusfere

When the heat of summer’s over and the coolin’ fall is here—

Of course we miss the flowers, and the blossums on the trees,

And the mumble of the hummin’-birds and buzzin’ of the bees;

But the air’s so appetizin’; and the landscape through the haze

Of a crisp and sunny morning of the airly autumn days

Is a pictur’ that no painter has the colorin’ to mock—

When the frost is on the punkin and the fodder’s in the shock….

No doubt the extreme heat of this summer and fall has caused many CCH gardens to lose their vibrancy.  The Country Hills Garden Club discovered an attractive October Beauty Spot at 10011 Cornwall Road where Michele and Michael Rogers have kept their landscape looking colorful with seasonal flowers and decorations. Tall evergreen trees and low-spreading dogwoods have protected the yard from beaming sun and plant stress. Along the house’s brick walls, rhododendrons, azaleas, hostas, and ferns still show off their unique green foliage behind a border of white rocks. Garden ornaments of life-like birds and woodland animals are interspersed in the greenery. To welcome the arrival of autumn, Michele has placed eye-catching arrangements of sugar pumpkins and chrysanthemums near the house entryway and lamp post. At the center point of the garden between containers with yellow cushion mums, smiling scarecrows hold hands in friendship and express appreciation for “Harvest Blessings.” This cheerful, harvest-themed landscape makes us eager for a “coolin’ fall” and celebrations with tricks, treats, turkeys, and trimmings!

Respectfully submitted,

Anita Johnson and Nancy LeBow

Country Hills Garden Club

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Driving through Country Club Hills, you see some neighbors out working in their yards on a regular basis. Such is the case with the owners of the home at 9909 Broadview Drive. Congratulations Andy Pachuta and Jackie Santana: We are delighted to award you the September 2019 Beauty Spot of the Month! 

Andy and Jackie have created an oasis on their corner lot at Broadview and Country Hill Drive. The yard is well-maintained and inviting. Passing along the Broadview side of the property, the color red pops out and carries the eye across the yard, from the barn-style shed (at the top right of the driveway) to the seating area decorated with red Adirondack chairs (to the left of the driveway).  The landscaping features mostly trees and shrubs. Several older maple trees throughout the property provide lovely shade. To the right side of the driveway is a Japanese red maple, ringed with liriope at its base. To the left of the driveway is a beautiful red bud tree. The yard has a slope to it; the retaining wall, while serving a structural purpose at the base of the red bud tree, also adds a wonderful textural hardscape interest.  

Along the Country Hill side, a variety of evergreens (holly, acuba, euonymus, and yews) act as a privacy screen for the patio with another sitting area with benches that Jackie painted black. Another hardscape feature—a stacked stone wall at the left corner of the patio—provides more textural interest to the yard. A beautiful row of arbor vitae will eventually grow to be a lush privacy screen to border the property. 

Stop by and see this beautiful yard! 

Respectfully submitted,

Jennifer Judelsohn

Joyce Skoglund

Nancy Lebow

Country Hills Garden Club

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This August, look for the Beauty Spot of the Month at 3421 Brookwood Drive, where Elvesia and John Cesarini live. The Country Hills Garden Club praises their masterful use of line, form, color, and texture in their unique landscape design. During the hot, humid days of summer, the terraced front yard remains refreshingly cool beneath a bower of tall evergreen and deciduous trees.   Flower beds have been added along the straight property lines and the house base.  Raised island beds enclosed by stacked stones contribute balance and movement to the layout.  The summer spectacle in the yard stars a mix of blooming perennials. Pink crepe myrtle, roses, and geraniums flanked by golden coreopsis and black-eyed Susan flash their vibrant colors in shafts of sunlight that penetrate the tree canopy. Several varieties of the shade–loving hosta are thriving in this environment.  Hosta plantaginea, also called the August Lily, flaunt fragrant, bright white trumpet-shaped blossoms. Other hosta, though not in full flower this month, form a showy mass of overlapping, heart-shaped leaves. The lemon-lime and blue-green foliage lends a tropical tone to the garden.  John takes pride in his craftsmanship in creating and restoring garden ornaments which he artfully arranges at different heights. At the center of the yard, butterflies cut and decorated by hand perch high on a maple tree trunk. Midst the hosta below, a life- like white swan he painted with precise detail creates the illusion that it is serenely floating in a blue lagoon.  This gorgeous garden oasis enhances the aesthetic appeal of the Cesarini yard and the CCH neighborhood!

Respectfully submitted,

Anita Johnson and Nancy LeBow

Country Hills Garden Club

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This July many CCH neighbors have creatively decorated their landscapes with patriotic stars and stripes and richly colored flowers just in time for holiday visitors. At 3420 Park Hill Place, Pam and Steve Caruso have made major changes to their landscape giving it a new look. The Country Hills Garden Club chooses their ambitious DIY garden project as the Beauty Spot of the Month.  The updated design has kept several established plants in place.  Curbside barberry and crepe myrtle bushes define the front edge of the garden. Beyond these, a hillside rises to mature holly and azalea bushes and a sturdy maple tree close to the house. After their research for plants of differing foliage, flowering displays, and growth habits, the Caruso’s added rows of hardy evergreens, perennials, and ground covers to prevent hill erosion and to ensure eye-catching colors season to season.  During this month, their front yard shows off many of Virginia’s best-loved flowers, including the scarlet rose, lavender hosta, mauve hydrangea, blue spiderwort, pink crepe myrtle, creamy sweetspire, and orange daylily.  A new flagstone path leads to more visual delights in the lower side yard. At a tranquil corner, an American flag unfurls in summer breezes and butterflies flutter near pale purple blooms on a buddleia bush. Much pleased with their accomplishments, Pam and Steve say their dream garden is still a work in progress.  They won’t be hanging up their garden hoses and tools yet!   

Respectfully submitted,

Anita Johnson and Nancy LeBow

As we drove through the neighborhood, we saw lots of evidence of folks working in their yards. A few areas are worth noting as works in progress: Check out Cornwall at the corner of Old Post, Spring Lake Terrace at the corner of Farmington, and Parkhill between Farmington and Cornwall. We are excited to see these spaces as they continue to grow and develop.

In the meantime, do you ever feel overwhelmed with landscaping possibilities and don’t know where to begin?  Or maybe you want a clean design that is low maintenance and always looks good? The June 2019 Beauty Spot goes to a home that exemplifies a minimalist approach to landscaping design. Congratulations to Jean Lambert and her brother, Jim Lockwood, of 10007 Boxford Court.

We’ve had our eye on this home for years. It is the epitome the “one and done” design method, utilizing liriope as the singular plant. Along the house, rock beds are enclosed in stacked stone walls, creating textural contrast between the smooth round rocks and the flat stones. There are six evenly spaced variegated liriope along the front bed, and several liriope plants lining the right side of the driveway. Visual interest is added in the front bed with a birdhouse on a post and decorative rocks at the base, and from the Japanese red maple that is visible from the left side of the house.

Sometimes, the simplest approach has the strongest impact. 

Stop by and see this yard: How can you incorporate minimalism into your landscaping design?

Respectfully submitted,

Jennifer Judelsohn

Joyce Skoglund

Country Hills Garden Club

Driving through Country Club Hills, there is no doubt that Spring is in bloom: the azaleas are bursting with a plethora of flowers, dogwoods are starting to flower in shades of pink, and there is lots of color all around! And when you see neighbors out working in their yards, you know it’s time for this year’s Beauty Spot awards to begin.

Congratulations to Yanji Lama and Chad Hurley of 10124 Spring Lake Terrace— we’ve had our eye on your yard for years and are delighted to award you the May 2019 Beauty Spot of the Month! 

We especially love the plantings on the hill on the left side of the walkway. There is a large evergreen that anchors the upper left corner of the bed. The rest of the hill is an assortment of perennials interspersed among white quartz stones, giving the appearance that the plantings all grew there on their own, in a very natural, organic manner. Clumps of garlic chive, blooming with purple flowers, sway in the breeze along with the ornamental grass at the top of the hill. There are native geraniums, lambs ear, sedum (both as a mounding plant and another variety as a ground cover), and creeping jenny.

In the bed to the right of the walkway, in front of the house, a metal container is planted with some vegetable, and there’s a whiskey barrel full of strawberry plants. A beautiful fuschia azalea is in bloom, and there are plantings of daylilies, variegated hostas, sedum, astilbe, and variegated liriope.

To add further interest, there are decorative pots with japanese painted fern, cactus, and annuals.

A stepping stone at the bottom of the hill on the left reads, “The Earth Laughs in Flowers.” This little stone hints at the magic that happens every year in this yard. Keep watch for the mass of delicate pink flowers that bloom later in May. It is a wonderful surprise and delight for the eyes.

Stop by and see this beautiful yard!

Respectfully submitted,

Jennifer Judelsohn

Joyce Skoglund

Country Hills Garden Club

The Country Hills Garden Club is pleased to honor Joyce and Len Skoglund’s landscape at 3415 Country Hill Drive as the November, 2018 Beauty Spot of the Month. As a Gardening Consultant, Joyce is familiar with the elements of good landscape design and the plants compatible with Virginia soil and climate. The Skoglunds have used this knowledge to create spectacular year-round views of flowers and foliage outside their windows.

At the end of the growing season, curving garden beds bordering house walls and walkways feature dramatic differences between plant forms and textures. Prickly needles of upright cactus and conifers are juxtaposed with delicate arching fern fronds.  Symmetrical evergreens overlook shape-shifting ornamental grass. Silvery green sword-like blades of iris and yucca contrast sharply with dark green, oval leaves of camellia and azalea.

Nighttime chills followed by daylight warm-ups bring the panoply of autumn color to the yard. Dogwoods with ruby red leaves shimmering on gracefully posed limbs lure visitors nearer for a close look at garden accents and seasonal transformations. Arbor arches and yard art harmonize with natural shapes and shades. Reddish-purple pods hang from a hyacinth bean vine. Gold-brushed leaves glow on a witch hazel shrub. Bronzed florets crown sedum stems and Joe-Pye Weed stalks.  Yellow and copper chrysanthemums, ornamental cabbages, and pied pansies will brighten urns and borders through the Thanksgiving holiday.

Does this striking landscape inspire you to consider adding something new to your garden? It’s not too late to display a fall-themed wreath or to plant spring-flowering bulbs!

Respectfully submitted,

Anita Johnson

The Pumpkin

BY JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER

Oh, greenly and fair in the lands of the sun,
The vines of the gourd and the rich melon run,
And the rock and the tree and the cottage enfold,
With broad leaves all greenness and blossoms all gold,…

The Country Hills Garden Club has chosen Susan and David Pepin’s unique yard at 3413 Park Hill Place as the October, 2018 Beauty Spot of the Month. A change of seasons makes an exciting show at this address. Throughout the summer, holly and azalea shrubs along the house walls provided a verdant green backdrop to lavender and pink floral sprays filling blue containers. Although September’s weekly rains have strengthened stems and coaxed new growth, harbingers of the fall harvest season are the main attractions of this October garden. Mother Nature has applied bold brush strokes from her rich autumn palette. Dogwood leaves are edged claret red. Branches of a stately spruce tree are laden with glossy green needles and umber cones. Orange ribbed pumpkins and yellow star-shaped flowers peek from a tree skirt of curling vines and leaves. Susan claims she does little to nurture the prolific “Pepin Pumpkin Patch.” She credits luck with favorable soil and weather. Whatever the charm for garden success, this colorful yard puts us in the mood for family fun at Oktoberfests and Halloween celebrations!

Respectfully submitted,

Anita Johnson and Joyce Skoglund
Country Hills Garden Club

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