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
