Julie Davis

jdavis@cherryroad.com

The Tree City Garden Club has selected Nancy Giles’ yard at 814 Palora Circle as the July Yard of the Month.

Rosie Pfeiffer, who selects the Yard of the Month each summer, said Giles’ lilies caught her eye as she drove past the house while visiting a friend in the neighborhood.

“I always look at her yard,” said Pfeiffer, and I drove by really slow this month, thinking ‘there’s got to be more to this’” than what is immediately visible from the street.

Along with the eyecatching colorful lilies that are curbside on the property, the front yard has a mostly white Marian Garden, with some Rose of Sharon mixed in for touches of pink, said Giles.

The front yard also is home to an heirloom Dawn rose that belonged to Giles’ grandmother. She said every family member who gets his or her own home receives a rose slip to plant in their yard.

In the side yard are some other heirloom plants Giles acquired during construction projects at Northside and Lourdes Central Catholic schools. She rescued a lilac from the old Northside property and transplanted hydrangeas from 2nd Avenue properties that were going to be demolished to make way for the Lourdes expansion.

Giles and her family moved into the property 22 years ago and she has added to what was planted when her family moved in along the way.

Plants on the cul-de-sac property include false hydrangea, cardinal vine, geraniums, prairie rue, and columbine. The last plant is what Giles calls a “bird gift” as she did not plant it intentionally in her garden.

She did intentionally plant zinnias and pincushions and is pleased that both types of plants are doing well this year.

Giles said her eventual goal is to plant a perennial garden and place annuals around the garden in pots.