Happy Spring CCH!!

After an extended hiatus, the County Hills Garden Club monthly Beauty Spot is back.  Early spring weather conditions impacted the opening of buds and blooms, but gave residents ample time to work on their yards.    Driving around the neighborhood, it is clear that spring has finally sprung. Azaleas are ablaze with color, dogwoods are dotted with white or pink flowers, and there are many spring bulbs bursting with blooms all around.

There are so many wonderfully landscaped CCH homes to highlight, choosing one is always so difficult.  We are thrilled to award the May 2022 Beauty Spot of the Month to Jill and Drew Toth of 9934 Pinehurst.  We have been watching their progress over the last couple years and their yard now offers many seasonal delights.

The Toth’s have been residents since 2001 and are first-time winners of the “Spot,” congratulations!  After moving in, they learned from a neighbor that the former owner maintained an “immaculate yard.”  After many years of raising a family, the Toth’s were finally able to devote some time, love, and sweat to expand their landscape vision.

Jill initially spearheaded this effort with many well-priced online plant purchases that caught her eye.  More recently, she has been focused on including natives in her landscape design.   Jill has given considerable thought to include various types of plants and shrubs to enhance the overall visual appeal and provide multi-season interest.

As you approach the house, what once was a chain-link fence separating the neighbor to the left, is now an oasis of color and texture.  In this landscaped median a Hinoke cyprus provides a central focal point with bright pink azaleas and flowering hollies that lead your eyes up the property line.  Various types of sedum dot the landscape, some spilling over rustic clay pots.  Spring ephemerals such as daffodils, tulips, and bloodroot are still going strong.

In the coming months, the drift roses that anchor both ends of the bed and the interspersed catmint, yarrow, and daisies will have their moment in the sun.  Tucked away behind the drift roses is a lone red stick dogwood waiting to provide a pop of color during those cold winter months.

Anchored by a mature abelia shrub, the mulched area leading up to the front door welcomes you with squill, dwarf and Siberian iris, sedum, and a prominent collection of peonies.  Rectangular stones create a pathway that wraps around the front of the house, inviting you to take a stroll around back.  The front of the house includes evening primrose, bloodroot, bearded iris, rhododendron, creeping phlox and thyme, allium yet to come, and a star magnolia.  A “Rustic Love Vienna” sign shows their support for a local non-profit helping to feed food-insecure families.

While not easily seen from the road, along the right side of the house, smaller beds line the stone path that leads to the fenced-in backyard.  Here you will find a shade garden with lily of valley hellebore, astilbe, and toad lily and a stone garden with sedum and creeping Jenny.  Along the fence bordering the right side of the property is another bed with St. John’s wort, peony, azalea, spirea, obedient and rudbeckia plants.  The fenced in backyard continues to wow with a cherry tree in full bloom and additional shaded beds with many types of hosta, ferns, huechera, azaleas and euphorbia.

The Toth’s have put a lot of effort into their landscape design over the last couple years, which has earned them their inaugural “Beauty Spot.”  We hope everyone will take time this spring to check out their home, as well as the many other beautifully landscaped homes in our CCH neighborhood.  We look forward to featuring others, veteran winners and newcomers, in the coming months.

Kim Leone and Kirsten Youngren

Country Club Garden Club

When Tim Jacobs landed in CCH in 2008, he describes the yard of his home at 3406 Brookwood as having a “good footprint”, but well, in need of a makeover. However, the former professional landscaper saw lots of potential and has brought that potential to life, earning him the CCH Beauty Spot for November 2021.

Tim mixes hardscape and eclectic plantings to create layers of stone and shades of green, framed with a brilliant canopy of fall-colored leaves. He has given considerable thought to how the rolling yard can best enhance the overall visual appeal. From a line of maple trees on the yard border, an ivy-covered stone walkway separating a lush stand of rhododendrons from a mature cluster of azaleas, the sand-colored pebbles of happy accident that dog legs the walkway – the rolling yard transitions gently from one planting area to another.

Plant selection comes down to what catches Tim’s eye and fits the budget. He also prefers landscaping that will stand the test of time even if it takes a bit longer for the initial installation. His work gives CCH a yard that greets you with the fiery red leaves of a dogwood contrasted against the still green leaves of the maples. A ring of Windsor stone encircles the trunk of a large maple and overflows with silvery-green mounds of artemisia offset by the bright yellow of hostas as they fade in the fall chill. Gold mop cypress, pieris shrubs, ornamentals hostas, and a lone pair of elephant ears that haven’t gotten the memo winter is coming, fill the beds framing the house.

The zebra grass, one of Tim’s favorites, in the side lawn catches the light of the sun as it sets seemingly ever-earlier these days, cueing the solar lights it’s their time to shine and light the bed borders and walkways. He’s pretty happy with the durability of his stonework, noting the previous stonework couldn’t hold up to the network of tree roots, but “so far, so good” he says of the stones he’s laid over the past years. Now if he could just get the dogs to contribute more positively to the backyard! 

As the cold winter nights approach, take advantage of the fleeting daylight to admire the Jacobs’ outstanding landscape.

Hope everyone has a Happy Thanksgiving.  We’ll be back this spring to feature another amazing CCH property.

Kim Leone and Kirsten Youngren

Country Hills Garden Club

Catherine and David DeConcini, have created a delightful splash of fall color in their front yard at 3412 Park Hill Place, earning them recognition as the October Beauty Spot of the Month.

Dotted with mums, dahlias, and brightly colored seasonal gourds, the DeConcini yard celebrates the arrival of fall. A still-blooming hydrangea anchors the corner bed and the DeConcini’s have added scarecrows, witch hats, and vintage metal bicycle planters, combining to create a whimsical feeling of fall and Halloween. A neatly trimmed house-framing hedge provides a brilliant green backdrop to the playful collection of flowers, foliage, and fall décor.

Vintage metal bicycle planters add a further touch of whimsy, adding to the layers of color with pots of mums in full bloom. Catherine says she loves the old time feel the bicycles bring. And she’s not the only one loving the DeConcini yard. Bees buzz happily among catmint, salvia, and dahlias. Large gourds and a pumpkin nestle among the mums in the stone-rimmed bed.

As Virginia’s summer fades into the chill of autumn, take advantage of the warmth and sunshine, wander past Catherine and David’s yard to enjoy some fall color and whimsy.

Kim Leone and Kirsten Youngren

Country Hills Garden Club

(click picture to enlarge)