Ramblewood Garden Club awarded the April Yard of the Month to Gabriele Eckart and husband Terry Heins who garden at 1403 Bertling Street. They have been planting trees, shrubs, and flowers for over 20 years at their home in Cape Girardeau. In fact, the couple was given a Yard of the Month certificate in 2008 from the Cape Chamber of Commerce. The yard continues to be a delight in the spring with blooming flowers, trees, and shrubs. Much has changed since then according to aGabriele, as previously the front yard was planted with a profusion of tulips and hostas which were all eaten by the many deer who wander through their neighborhood.

“What the deer like most is hostas.” reports Gabriele. She has since filled the curving flower beds with ‘deer resistant’ plantings with many varieties of daffodils (Narcissus), hellebores (Helleborus), colorful red, white, pink, and coral peonies (Paeonia); azaleas (Rhododendron), both native and Exbury varieties, and Iris.

The front yard beds invoke a thought of an English garden with foxglove (Digitalis), Japanese painted fern (Athyrium niponicum), columbine (Aquilegia), coral bells (Heuchera), surprise lilies (Lycoris squamigera), and Asiatic lilies (Lilium auratum) among the other plants filling in the spaces.

Planted in the rear of the front garden grows a large ‘Elsie Lee’ azalea, a show stopper in pale lavender, along with the dark red blooming tree peony, both shown in the picture above. The curving flower beds surrounding a bald cypress (Taxodium distichum), a red Japanese maple (Acer palmatum), and a flowering ornamental pear tree (Pyrus calleryana) are edged with paving bricks and rocks which provide green lawn pathways through the yard. A red lace leaf Japanese maple and an Alberta spruce (Picea glauca) welcome visitors at the front entrance.

The driveway side bed plantings are also in an assortment of spring and summer blooming flowers, with purple spiked ajuga (Ajuga reptans purpurea) being a standout. The back yard surrounded by a tall wooden fence protects the many colorful varieties of daylilies (Hemerocallis), hostas, roses, ferns, Allium, variegated King Soloman’s-seal (Polygonatum), and 15 different varieties of iris, including the dark purple ‘Louisiana’ iris. Many of these plants are contained in wooden edged planting beds built by husband Terry Heins, who puts his hobby of woodworking to good use. This area was once a swimming pool that has been filled in to make room for this beautiful and colorful garden.

Gabriele who has her PhD in German language is a retired Emeritus Professor of German and Spanish Languages from Southeast Missouri State University. We congratulate Dr. Eckart and Mr. Heins for their efforts in creating this outstanding garden that makes our city a more beautiful place to live and has been appreciated by garden lovers for many years.