Congratulations to our neighbors Jean and Dave Bever at 3408 Park Hill Place! They are the winners of the Country Hills Garden Club Beauty Spot Award for October 2020. The grounds around their CCH ranch-style house feature an enviable landscape that draws compliments throughout the year. A lustrous, green lawn borders the driveway which leads to a medley of shrub shapes in linear planting beds along the house walls. Rhododendron, azalea, euonymus, and laurel bushes next to their compact companion plants of nandina and blue star juniper display reliable color and texture even during Virginia’s grayest, coldest days. For spring and summer seasons, the Bevers add pizzazz to the view with the continuous blooms of annuals and roses and the unique foliage of lamb’s ear and liriope plants.  This month the front yard captures the excitement that comes with the start of autumn and the anticipation of harvest-time holidays. A banner with a bright–eyed owl dressed in Halloween costume leads a parade of seasonal flowers. A pattern of alternating yellow, white, and blue pansies embellished with glossy, orange pumpkins and a glowing yellow chrysanthemum brings movement and rhythm to the scene. This landscape’s lineup of garden favorites guarantees a star-studded grand finale for the growing season.

Happy Autumn!

Anita Johnson and Nancy LeBow

Congratulations to Marcie and Chad Sands the recipients of the Country Hills Garden Club Beauty Spot Award for September 2020. Their home at 10100 Spring Lake Terrace rests in a clearing at the edge of the forest that borders the Accotink Creek.  A camera with a wide angle lens is necessary to completely capture the broad landscaped grounds with numerous ornamental bushes and trees and a lawn that extends to a hedgerow shared with the CCH Commons. In the front yard, a Japanese maple in prime form with its dome shape and bronze foliage draws attention as a dramatic contrast to the surrounding green turf and woods. Pyramidal hollies growing at the house corners frame the distinguishing architectural and floral features across the two story facade.  Picture windows with sky blue shutters overlook flowerbeds and containers with profusely blooming yellow and red zinnias, peach gerbera daisies, and pink begonias. Lush liriope plants add texture with spikes of tiny, purple flowers nestled between narrow, lime-striped leaves. The fancy banner near the classic doorway reflects the colors of the beautiful flowers irresistible to birds and butterflies. A quick switch to a zoom setting on the camera just might catch that magic moment when a goldfinch arrives at the scene!

Enjoy the last days of summer!

Anita Johnson and Nancy LeBow

August 2020 Beauty Spot of the Month

The Country Hills Garden Club Beauty Spot Award for August 2020 goes to Noelle and Matt Toskovich at 3512 Spring Lake Terrace. The trees, shrubs, and flowers across the yard are flourishing after weathering this summer’s record-smashing number of days above ninety degrees. The Toskovich family has a commanding view of their beautiful landscape from the Adirondack chairs on their brick patio. Close by are containers filled with marigolds, scarlet salvia, and cascading purple petunias. A lofty conifer’s pendulous branches offer a cooling cover for the hosta plants, bushy azaleas, and well-maintained lawn in front of the house. Noelle has cultivated an island flower bed at the sunny side yard. Radiant rainbow-colored zinnias and flamboyant fire-red canna lilies shine against a dark background of large, forest green rhododendrons.  A prominent place in the garden has been cleared for a butterfly plant acquired at the garden club’s June plant sale and the Toskovich children’s painted rocks.  Tiny garden fairies have a home in this planting bed, too!  Their charming scene with a seaside theme rests at the garden’s edge. It displays a miniature heart with powerful words of inspiration-“In the garden Love grows.”  

Happy gardening!

Anita Johnson and Nancy LeBow

The Beauty Spot of the Month award for July goes to Betty and Bill Crawford at 3415 Andover Drive. They are longtime residents of CCH. In fact, Betty has been a member of the Country Hills Garden Club for forty-five years! Betty knows well the challenges and rewards of keeping garden areas looking their best in Virginia’s acidic, clay soil after temperature and precipitation stressors. The lush greenery surrounding her home is the result of her savvy care of a host of perennials, shrubs, and trees that she planted. Dogwood branches above front windows gracefully bow with brilliant blossoms, berries, and leaves as seasons change. Large azaleas growing beneath are abloom for weeks at springtime.  The shoulder-high evergreen acuba shrubs standing nearby started as just small cuttings! This July the garden areas burst with excitement!  Flowering stalks of lavender honeybell hostas and sun-kissed orange daylilies add their pops of color to the right fence line. To the left, a bank of profusely blooming hydrangea bushes steals the limelight.  They are topped with stunning Lacecap powder blue pompoms, Annabelle white snowballs, and Oakleaf creamy fronds. Not to be upstaged, geraniums in decorative planters at the home entrance flash fire-red to complete a celebratory patriotic theme in the gardens for the 4^th of July holiday. Unlike a short-lived fireworks display, the red, white, and blue summer flowers will last into autumn adding new rich tones to the landscape. The Crawfords enjoy watching the birds and butterflies drawn to their splendid garden sanctuary. They hope you find pleasure in it, too.        

Happy 4^th of July from the Country Hills Garden Club!

Anita Johnson and Nancy LeBow