Congratulations to our August Yard of the Month: Lloyd Jones and Anne Montgomery’s Garden at 927 Merrill

Lloyd Jones and Anne Montgomery’s garden at 927 Merrill has been evolving for many years. Every year they try to add a little more to their limited space. Their emphasis has been the creation of a friendly bird, bee, and butterfly environment. Among the many flowering plants, there are lavender, cone flowers, cosmos, dianthus, and four types of salvia currently in bloom. Larger trees and shrubs include white crepe myrtles and tree form loropetalum. There are small rock garden beds with succulents and cacti.

They also try to have areas of interest throughout the different seasons of the year. Most of the plants come from local nurseries and tend to be heat and drought tolerant. They find their garden to be a great stress reliever and it brings them joy even during the hottest days of summer.

“We choose plants that will tolerate our summer heat and provide resources for pollinators. We enjoy multitudes of swallowtail, monarch, fritillary butterflies, moths as well as several species of bees and other insects too numerous to mention. The insects in turn draw a variety of toads & lizards who help keep the garden healthy. We avoid chemicals and use fish emulsion and Medina to enhance our soil and of course we are believers in M & M (manure and mulch). We also use water from our rain barrels when we have it. Each year we try a couple of new plants. Next spring, I have plans to add a couple of dwarf buddleia I’ve read about,” says Anne!

Sharing the garden with our neighbors and passers by is a joy. It keeps us connected to nature and our neighborhood.

We would like to thank Joshua’s Native Plants & Garden Antiques for honoring our yard of the month recipient with a wonderful gift card to their nursery.

List of plants in their front yard:
Salvia Greggii, Salvia Cobalt, Salvia Hotlips, Salvia Henry Duelberg, Lavender, Gazania African Daisies, Rudbeckia – several varieties, Echinacea – Cone Flower, Cosmos Klondyke Mix, Cigar Bush, Purple Sage, Purple Verbena, Day Lily, Liriope, ground cover Jasmine, Confederate Jasmine – one of the first spring flowers, Blue Mist – can be weedy, Guara, Gulf Coast Muhly Grass – great purple seed heads in fall, Miscanthus, Tree Form Loropetalum – profuse pink flowers in spring, White Crepe Myrtle, Foxtail Fern, Peppermint Azalea, Various Cacti and Succulents