Alva Review-Courier -

The Alva Garden Council has selected Roger and Melanie Cunningham's residence at 927 Santa Fe St. as the September Yard of the Month. Over the last 29 years, this yard has evolved into a lush garden filled with green plants, shrubs, ornamental grasses and trees, encircling the entire house to satisfy the needs of any bird or wildlife enthusiast or garden lover.

Various sized native rocks collected by their son, Dalton, define the borders of the front flowerbed. Within the flowerbed are the following: Autumn Joy sedum, coreopsis, zebra miscanthus grass, Mexican feather grass, Boston ferns, giant hosta, echinacea, moneywort groundcover, Chinese fringe flower, and barberry shrubs. A newly planted cypress tree and a Japanese maple next to a bush allamanda vine add depth and texture to the flowerbed. Sunpatiens fill the window boxes and tiered terra cotta pots add touches of bright red to the flowerbed. At one edge of the property, a hollowed out tree stump provided shelter this winter to a mother rabbit and her babies from the busy street, and the other edge contains a Colorado blue spruce tree.

Along the driveway another flowerbed contains lime green sweet potato vine and purple fountain grass beneath another window box filled with red sunpatiens. At the edge of the driveway is a sago fern, a ponytail palm tree, and a washtub containing a staghorn fern with periwinkles below. The front porch has Boston ferns, succulents, Persian shield, birdhouses, and assorted stone rabbit garden statues.

Near the back door Melanie repurposed a half whiskey barrel planter into a mini pond filled with water plants and gold fish. Surrounding the water feature are stone pots filled with coleus, sedum, aloe vera, and purple petunias. Throughout the garden, Melanie has an eclectic collection of wrought iron pieces, vintage radio flyer wagons, birdhouses, decorative owl and sun dial accents, and unique wood and metal water features. Cannas, wild sunflowers, sun coleus, rudbeckia, lantana, gazania, elephant ears, variegated yucca, castor bean and obedient plants are a few of the many perennials featured in their back yard.

In spite of the ups and downs that 2020 has caused, the Alva Garden Council has been delighted to discover and showcase three exceptional gardens this summer. A good yard doesn't just happen. The diversity of landscaping and horticulture that our Yard of the Month selections have displayed translates to a lot of hard work and creative use of ordinary items to produce extraordinary outdoor living spaces. The Alva Garden Council would like your suggestions for future selections for Yard of the Month in the coming year – call a council member or send a message to the Alva Garden Council Facebook page.