Provided
The Glenwood Springs Garden Club is for the second year recognizing local residents and businesses who have created welcoming and plant-bedecked front yards. We encourage and appreciate the efforts many locals give to beautifying their properties with trees, bushes and flowering plants. Those on the front of homes and businesses seen from the street and sidewalk views are especially important to the beautification of our community.
The Yard of the Month Committee of the Glenwood Springs Garden Club recently presented Linda and Mark Schuemaker, homeowners at 2110 Blake Ave., with the first Yard of the Month Award for 2019.
Linda and Mark beamed with excitement as they were presented a certificate of appreciation for the beautiful front yard they have developed from their own gardening pleasure.
Obviously, it is well-appreciated by the neighborhood as well, plus residents passing by on foot, bike or in cars. One neighbor walking home from work clapped and cheered when she saw us placing the sign. There is a Yard of the Month sign for May amid the flowers on the berm in front of their home on Blake south of the Garfield County building and Valley View Hospital. Neighbors say Linda and Mark are often out working in their yard. Residents are encouraged to walk by and stop to enjoy the colorful display of their well-planned gardens.
The dedicated care and Linda’s knowledge of gardening is evident in every corner and from all angles. Basket of Gold and Tulips surround the mailbox. Spring blooms include euphorbia, grape hyacinth, bleeding hearts, aguga, tulips and daffodils in their front gardens along the sidewalk. Feverfew, tickseed, coreopsis, and creeping thyme, plus cone flowers and chrysantheums are intermingled for later blooming. Bushes blooming in spring and into summer include lilacs, holly, raspberry flame barberry, potentilla, and golden barberry.
The plants look so well-planned and -planted, but Linda laughingly shared that she started the plethora of grape hyacinth with some from her mother’s garden. They have spread out spaced among the taller plants planned only by Mother Nature. A wall along the driveway is lined with snow in summer capped at the top with trumpet vine. Mark said it will cover with flowers the metal banister built by his father surrounding the front porch.
A gorgeous Amur maple tree graces their front lawn, as well as some other trees to vary the heights in the yard with the flower beds. Mark said the meticulous lawn is his domain and credits for all the extensive flower beds belong to Linda.
The couple are especially fond of a smoke tree. Interestingly, when they purchased their home in 1991 the yard included only a dead tree and a huge maple tree that was dying. With their dedication to gardening, the front yard is now a visual delight.
Ann English is past president of the Glenwood Springs Garden Club and a member of the Yard of the Month Committee.