By Rita Spain
Esther Scott has packed
a whole lot of detail into the yard and patio of her
Collierville home. Mrs.
Scott used to travel to Mountain Home, Ark., and she always
brought back some river rocks and stones, and sometimes statues
of small animals to put in her yard. Those elements helped her
yard, located at 386 Goldfinch Cove, win The Collierville
Herald's Yard of the Month.
"I just love to decorate my beds with stones and
rocks and statues along with the evergreen shrubs," she said.
Mrs. Scott said she uses stones and rocks because
during the winter the beds are so bare and the stones kind of
perk things up. She has several pots, planters and statues of
frogs; some filled with ivy – and others she plants with white
begonias in the summer and spring.
Two antique planters with a decorative, artificial
topiary in each one, stand beside her front door and keep a
large terra cotta frog planter company.
"These two birch trees I planted in 1993 and I just love
the pattern the bark on the tree makes. I hang large ferns from
the limbs during the summer," Mrs. Scott said.
There is a wooden and iron bench with a frog planter
next to it on one side of her driveway along with some nandina
shrubs and an American flag.
On the side of the house,
leading to the back patio, is a New Orleans-style iron gate that matches the iron on the front door.“
She has installed fieldstone steps and used brick and a
mixture of other stones for the side yard, which leads to the
back patio. A collection of bird houses, wind chimes, and an
unusual garden gnome hanging on the fence give the patio an
interesting look.
Iron patio chairs and tables are
placed around the patio against evergreen fir trees and other
evergreen vines that tend to make the patio look larger than it
is. It is almost a New Orleans-style patio that is shady and
cool. At the end of the patio amidst tall evergreen shrubs is a
beautiful statue on a pedestal of a Grecian woman.
One of Mrs. Scott's favorite plants is
the climbing Hydrangea, which she has planted on the fence next
to the iron gate leading to the patio.
"That is the most beautiful flowering vine I've ever
seen," she said. "It is covered with white flowers in the summer
and the green leaves look nice all year."
Even in the winter with all the
leaves gone, the vines are gnarled and unusual looking which
gives visual interest to the fence.
Mrs. Scott's pride and joy,
though, is the Zoyia sod she has planted in the front
yard. It is like a velvet carpet of green every year.
"I'm so happy with - how it turned out," she said.
