Jardin du Lac awards October Garden of the Month to Carlene Young

October’s Jardin du Lac garden of the month winner is the home of Carlene Young of Season's Parkway in Lake Saint Louis.

Young has lived in her current home for only two years but has really been working to make it her own. The house had been empty for more than a year before Carlene purchased it, so the gardens had been neglected and overgrown for a while. She had a lot of pruning and cleaning up to do just to get it looking decent, then she began to add her own touches.

The landscape started with a basic plan of evergreen yews and Spirea shrubs in front, with two Southern Magnolia trees that are covered with blooms in the spring time. Unfortunately the Magnolia trees were planted by the previous owner a little too close to the house for them to reach full round maturity, but Carlene has decided to let them stay and keep a mindful eye when pruning the side against the house.

Carlene and her friend, Ed Ketterer, also an avid gardener, have made many improvements to the yard. One of the most important is amending the soil with compost in all of the planting beds. It’s good to see that they understand the importance of starting with good soil to give the new and existing plants the best possible chance to grow to their full potential.

They have experienced many trials and tribulations with their plants due to the long summer heat and drought, but have come through it with plans for even more changes next year. This past summer they learned to re-arrange plants according to the plants' needs. For example, Hostas that had been receiving too much sun were moved to a shadier location.

There are quite a few summer hanging baskets in the back yard that had to be hand watered every day which can be very time consuming. While she was away on vacation in the cooler climate of Canada, Carlene’s daughter had to come by daily to water all the potted annuals. I spoke with her about how easy it is to install a drip irrigation system with a timer that would take care of that chore for her, so Ed plans to look into doing this for her for next year.

One interesting plant Carlene has in her yard is an heirloom peony given to her by Ed. He remembers planting it in his mother’s yard when he was 12 and that was 62 years ago. Some of the other plants she has are: Butterfly bush, Knock Out roses, Veronica, Dianthus, Clematis vine, Hydrangea vine, Snowball Viburnum, Burning Bushes and yellow variegated leaf Euonymus shrubs, just to name a few.

There is a small vegetable garden in the back that was created as a raised bed for better drainage and amended with a lot of compost and top soil. It’s narrow enough to be able to reach in to pull out weeds without having to actually step into the bed and compact the soil. In this bed were tomatoes, swiss chard and asparagus. If Carlene wants to add more vegetables, it would be easy to build another small raised bed, leaving a path in between.

I can tell that they both really enjoy getting out and working in their yards and it sure is nice for Carlene to have Ed’s help along the way.

If you are interested in gardening, learning about gardening or joining a garden club, stop by the Community Association Clubhouse, the second Monday morning of each month and sit in on a meeting of the Jardin du Lac Garden Club.  Meetings start at 9:30 a.m.

If you have a beautifully landscaped yard or have unique garden ornaments that you are proud of and would like to see featured on Patch.com, or have any gardening questions, contact Peggy at Bahrmasel@msn.com.