July Yard of the Month

I remember when the former residents moved away and Maria and Rafael Ramos moved into the house at 10411 White Clover. The house was always attractive, but it wasn’t long before the yard began to change in a beautiful way, as Maria and Rafael first started adding flower beds and character all around the curving path to the driveway. It’s hard to believe, but their son told me that has been almost 20 years ago, and he thought it was Maria’s mom who inspired her love for gardening. I think Rafael caught that inspiration, too. Well, it was the Ramoses, who, like her mom, and like my former, across-the-street neighbors, Barney and Patsy Boudreaux, inspired me.

Patsy loved interesting and beautiful plantings, and made me, as a young mom of two little boys, want something like that. When the growing boys allowed it to happen, I followed Patsy’s example. Then when the Ramoses started their earliest improvements around that path, it made me also want to do something distinctive, so I added a path with flowers to my driveway. Across the years and even more recently, they’ve raised the bar again! BIG TIME!

The queen and sago palms they put in long ago create a tropical flare, and the new, large, rocks lining the path with beds full of red pentas and chartreuse green potato vine give a lively contrast. They all lead to the porch, hanging with lush, Swedish ivy baskets and to the handsome, wood and leaded glass front door. It’s gorgeous now, and I’ve been there and taken Christmas pictures, and it’s beautiful then, too, and year-round. Very well done, Maria and Rafael!!!

When you put yourself into your home to make it reflect you and be a great place to live and raise your family, keeping it up, making it beautiful, it is a gift to the neighborhood, too, and it can encourage others to follow your example. And it’s so much more than just “keeping up with the Joneses.” It’s being an INSPIRATION! Thank you, Rafael and Maria, for being that to me, and for keeping such a lovely home. Congratulations on being named July’s Yard of the Month!