ATKINSON — Shelley and Paul Gardner of Stone Pound Lane are recent recipients of the Atkinson Garden Club Garden of the Month Award.
For the past 13 years, the Gardners have called Atkinson home. When they first moved to their neighborhood, their property was totally devoid of any landscaping. That soon changed.
Huge boulders provide an indigenous stage for the seasonally changing floral drama that all gardeners know well. Stone walls offer architectural definition.
Purple clematis entwines itself about the Gardners' mailbox. Cleome and cosmos, lilies and miniature sunflowers greet visitors. Impatiens, petunias and hosta are interspersed with numerous varieties of annuals and perennials. Swathes of daisies and hollyhocks are complemented by bee balm and flowering hydrangea. A thriving vegetable garden also sits at the rear of the Gardners' property.
All this is accented by Shelley Gardner's collection of full size wheelbarrows, positioned throughout the yard and gardens, and brimming over with annuals.
The Gardners said plants are constantly being relocated to form new gardens, to try different combinations of plantings, or to accommodate their growing habits.
