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

The Country Hills Garden Club awards the June Beauty Spot of the Month to Erma and Richard Guerrero for their marvelously well-kept landscape at 9918 Broadview Drive. The Guerrero’s shared love of gardening is plain to see in the lush lawn and attractive plantings surrounding their home.  For color during spring and summer seasons, the Guerreros have selected perennials well -suited for their flower beds. A row of shade-loving astilbe with cotton candy-pink plumage softens the dark wooden privacy fence at the property’s left side. Three spiking arborvitaes add vertical accent to the shorter plants in the sun-filled gardens in front of the house.  The white brick walls provide a bright backdrop for showcasing the unique colors and forms found in clusters of green and cream striped hosta leaves, mounds of pink kisses dianthus, and upright stems of lavender phlox.  With a glance at the yard, the casual observer feels the cooling, restful effect of pastel blossoms. A closer look at the garden near the front door prompts a change of mood. The Guerreros increase interest and excitement with a surprising switch to the warm, energetic tones of the dwarf emerald holly and red maple, maroon coral bells, and luminous yellow lilies. You must see the recent remarkable transformation of this CCH landscape!

Gardening adds years to your life and life to your years. 

Anita Johnson and Nancy LeBow

Country Hills Garden Club