A yard filled with waterfalls and a koi pond, native plants, and vegetables grown in wooden pallets next to busy Washington Boulevard won the Rock Spring Garden Club’s 2014 Arlington Garden of the Year.
Mary and Steve Jennings’ garden at 6033 Washington Blvd. is a certified wildlife habitat with a 2,000-gallon rainwater reservoir below ground. It won first place among 16 entries judged by representatives of the Landscape Design Council of the National Capital Area Garden Clubs and the Master Gardeners of Northern Virginia.
Mary Jennings, an artist, pointed to irises divided from big clumps at Tuckahoe Elementary School, repurposed furniture pieces and an old faucet perched at the edge of a koi pond as evidence of her recycling mission. “Nothing is thrown out,” she said.
Her husband Steve, an engineer, was instrumental in designing the rain garden as part of a project to keep water from the pond and runoff away from the home, she said. The home also was on the Green Home and Garden tour sponsored by Arlingtonians for a Clean Environment.
Susan and Kevin Murnane won second place for a terraced garden on Lorcom Lane featuring perennials, native plants, and a waterfall that replaced most of the home’s grass lawn. The Murnanes also used plants and stones rescued from sites undergoing construction, and planted three different kinds of Mikweed as an offering to the Monarch Butterfly. A bat house is secured up high on the side of the home.
Third place was awarded to Judy and Raoul Wientzen for a secluded garden on North 24th Street enclosed by red bud and weeping cherry trees along with masses of hydrangeas, azaleas and ferns. Designed as a French “Clos,” the garden’s flagstone path winds through the property, which includes terraced vegetable gardens and a rain barrel for collecting rain water.
Barry Wood, a former contestant who headed this year’s Garden of the Year Committee, said each entry was “a winner.” The judges toured the gardens during a day-long visit in mid-May following a long, cold winter that made Wood worry no one would enter.
The awards were handed out during the club’s June meeting at the Little Falls Presbyterian Church. More than 100 people attended the program and buffet luncheon and viewed a video featuring photographs of the gardens taken by club member Mary Cottrell.
The contest closed out the 2013-14 garden club year. Meetings will resume in September. More information on the club and the yearly garden competition can be found by visiting the website, www.rockspringgardenclub.com.