June Yard of the Month 2025 – 1329 Waverly Street – By Greg Chapman

 I love to garden. I find it to be both a grounding and a creative process. The creative process in its many shapes and forms invites my interest and my passion. Everything in my garden is something I planted or that grew wild after I created the gardens. Eight and half years ago, it was a grassy lot with no house, a dead tree, a dying one, and 3 boundary trees that I recently lost to a developer. The blank slate called for a lot of action, and I started work in 2017 even as my home at 1329 Waverly was being built. I strive for a butterfly and bee garden, and I see them flitting around most days of the year; I have several plants that host caterpillars. Other creatures like to hang out like lizards and spiders, and I encounter earth worms pretty much wherever I dig. I get surprisingly few ants but too many wasps (it’s mother nature!), but I’ve never been stung. I have no grass in the front as I wanted to nurture a more complex and dynamic environment. I got turned off from mulch delivered from open piles, so I do it myself one bag at a time— this year, I bought 250-300 bags of mostly mulch and some soil. It’s a lot! The project takes about 2 months, which I do in the winter, and it connects me to the garden, what’s going on, and where I might want to nurture a change.

The feature that tends to get noticed first are the cattails extending the length of the lot in the ditch. When the wind blows, and the sword-like leaves sway, it quiets the soul. Echinacea brightens the gardens in purple-reds and pinks around a tall white oak; the flowers have spread on their own to new habitats. I work my gardens, but I also like to let Mother Nature do her thing. Passionflower vines spread along the fence. Bee balm bursts into a showy display in May with exotic blooms. Black-eyes Susans, coreopsis, Engelmann 

daisies, and wedelia give happy-sunshine yellows to the color scheme. Yarrow adds a splash of white. Salvia, Gregg’s mistflower and porterweed boost the purple pallet. I have a thyme and rose garden; to my delight, the thyme has weathered the heat and has spread to fill most of the space. All of the roses are aromatic though black spot is sometimes a problem. In March, my Mexican Plum is covered in white blooms before any leaves appear—I call it my angel tree. Soon after, a buckeye has a similar act in pink. 

On the south edge of the lot, I have 3 sweet olives that are quite fragrant in January-February. Behind the plum tree, I have 2 beauty berries that are blooming and will soon be dripping with their trademark beauties. Rosemary hugs part of the sidewalk so I can run by hands through it as I walk by. Two types of oregano squeeze in as well with one of them flowering in soft pink. I lost a Drummond maple to the hurricane last year and an oak leaf hydrangea to the freeze—the garden is ever changing.

The maple was special—it bloomed in January when few other plants did and the bees swarmed over the yellow flowers by the hundreds; sometimes I stood underneath it, a bit nervous, as the buzzing hum of the bees vibrated through my body. Wild and structured, the garden is a metaphor for my heart.  

Here is a link to my blog if you would like to see!  https://www.jamesgregorychapman.com/blog/mid-spring-garden-tour

We would like to thank Wabash Feed & Garden for the very nice gift card awarded to our June Yard of the Month recipient.  Wabash Feed & Garden  4537 N. Shepherd Dr.  713-863-8322  www.wabashfeed.com