Mistletoe Heights Yard of the Month
April 2015: 2221 Edwin St
The home of Willard and Aline Cole at 2221 Edwin St. is the recipient for the April Yard of the Month award. The Coles have lived in their beautiful house, built in 1934, since 1971. That puts them among our most longstanding neighbors.
The landscape is simple but elegant. It enhances the architecture of the home, built in a style called French Eclectic, without detracting from it in any way. The use of traditional plant materials is so appropriate to our historic neighborhood. Standard nandinas fi ll the front beds. Moreover, they are left to assume their natural shape rather than being trimmed in a boxy fashion. Those same beds are bordered by luxurious liriope. The lawn is always manicured and the parkway is full of thickly growing, healthy Asian jasmine.
At this time of year the Virginia creeper (ivy) that covers the front of the house is not leafed out. However, when it is, it makes the home look like something out of a dream.
The small porch has a bench on it, and if you’re walking by sometime I suggest you take a look at the plaque mounted by the front door. From a distance it looks like a historical landmark plaque, but if you actually read it I think you’ll find it has an entirely appropriate message. Purportedly from the “State of Mind Histerical Committee,” it declares: “On March 2, 1836, Texas declared her independence from Mexico, wild Comanches roamed the plains, Rangers protected frontier settlements, and this building was not here yet.”
I want one just like it for our house!
Willard Cole told me that it takes some spraying to control pests in the Virginia creeper, but all his hard work to maintain the classic, tasteful landscape certainly pays off in the fi nal product: a simply beautiful front yard.
- Bruce Horn