Curbside creation

Front yard stars in ongoing makeover

By Jomay Steen, Journal staff | Saturday, June 07, 2008

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When Marilyn Jacks decided to make over the bland boulevard in front of her North Rapid home, she hadn’t realized the amount of labor-intensive work she would undergo. But the satisfaction this cottage-sized, curbside flower garden has generated has made it all worthwhile.

Inspired by similar curbside gardens that she saw in 1992 while visiting friends in Colorado, Jacks decided to bring the idea back to South Dakota and her own rented home.

Her home on Monroe Street idn’t have a large front yard, which limited Jacks’ inclination to create a true English garden filled with both native and annual plant life. With a great deal of determination, a green thumb and a limited budget, she went ahead with her garden plans. To save money, Jacks decided to do all of the labor on her own.

Even after inspecting the future garden’s soil condition with its concentration of gravel, concrete and chemicals thrown onto the boulevard by years of winter snowplows, she wasn’t deterred.

“If a person wants a garden, you can grow a garden,” Jacks said.

She instinctively knew her front boulevard would never support any sort of plant life in its original condition, but she noticed an enormous pyramid of dirt piled up near a construction site.

She quickly drove onto the site, requesting that any excess dirt be delivered to her home address. Jacks watched in amazement as the eager construction workers dumped nearly a ton of dirt onto her boulevard.

“It took all summer long to smooth it out; one ice cream ucket at a time,” she said with a laugh. She keeps a collection of railway spikes she culled from the new soil framed in a shadow box, a memento of that summer of physical labor.

     Over the following 16 growing seasons, Jacks experimented with different annuals, perennials, herbs, shrubs, trees and native plants to see what worked. She added fertilizers, loam and sand to the soil to increase its fertility.

In that time, she’s planted junipers, hollyhocks, cotoneaster, columbine, snow in summer (cerastium tomentosum), hens and chicks (sempervivum tectorum), chives, yarrow, thyme, tarragon, sedum, volunteer buckthorn and other herbs. Jacks likes using her potted geraniums to add dramatic color to the garden.

Railway ties, rustic fences, wood chips and crushed rocks have created fun borders and pathways. The potted plants, benches and birdhouses beckon visitors and sidewalk pedestrians alike to share the shade and rest awhile in this aviary delight.

“A lot of people have given me things to try,” Jacks said of the plants that grace the boulevard.

Each winter, she experiences the pleasure of laying out her next garden that may phase in a new plant gifted by a friend or taking out an entire section that hasn’t responded well to drought conditions and gusting winds.

She has decided that tall plants cover up the really interesting parts of the curb garden, which recently caused her to revamp her annual flower design plan.

“Things that are really tall don’t look good. I took out everything that was tall like my hollyhocks,” she said.

Over the years, the small front garden has given her great pleasure and satisfaction leading her neighbors and friends back to their own gardens with ideas of their own. It has also built upon her inner strength.

“It teaches you patience. You have to wait a long time to see what you’re going to get,” she said looking at her springtime garden.

Come fall, it will look lush and entirely different from any garden she has ever planted.

“Every year, I always say ‘Next year, I’ll do something else.’ That’s the fun of it,” she added.