Across the Maples' garden on Iven Road are plants handed down to them from friends and family from a variety of generations and localities.
One of Rhonda Maples' favorites is what she used to call "Rosie Kaiser's flowers," after a neighbor of her grandmother who provided the start. It is a cleome, which was passed from her grandmother to her mother and then to her.
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Gusano's 3rd Anniversary
the party was HOPPING @ Gusanos Saturday night for their 3rd Anniversary party
They have yellow daylilies from Grandma Maples' yard in McGirk, which came by way of another family yard in Memphis, Tennessee. And the coneflowers, which attract butterflies to their backyard, were a gift from a friend no longer in Jefferson City.
"That's the fun of it; we've gotten a lot from friends and family, and we've shared a lot," Darrell said.
The flowering gifts helped to fill flower beds surrounding the modest yard over the last three decades.
The couple began with a lot fresh from the contractor. Darrell Maples said his first goal was to clear the backyard brush and start a lawn.
"We started small with hand-me-downs and pass-along plants," Rhonda Maples said.
He retired six years ago, and soon after, utilities dug up a troublesome part of his backyard, he said. Rather than trying to return it to lawn, he built the rock-lined border beds.
Two years ago, they added a sunroom, creating a "treehouse"-like view of their sloping backyard underneath a mature hackberry tree. And below, a covered patio created pocket shade gardens.
"I like to sit on the patio and watch things grow," Darrell Maples said.
Last year, he built new beds in front underneath the bushes and trees.
Although Darrell does most of the heavy labor and day-to-day care, Rhonda has an eye for placement and takes care of "editing" plants by dividing or transplanting.
Most of their work has been by trial and error. Rhonda learned the old-fashioned plants she wasn't fond of when she was younger are now her reliable backbone, like sedum and daylilies.
"You have to have annuals for color, but I love that perennials come back every year and don't take so much effort," Darrell said.
The Maples' garden was named the June Garden of the Month by the Central Missouri Master Gardeners and Bittersweet Garden Club.
Judges praised the four-season plantings and the flow of the garden around the entire house. They appreciated the manicured front beds highlighted with magenta annuals and the health of the hosta and heuchera in the shade beds.
"It was the overall organized manner in which the gardens were laid out and immaculately cared for that impressed me," a judge said. "I liked the way the gardens wrapped around the backyard to be viewed from their sunroom or the patio seating area under the sunroom."
The judges also noticed the use of rocks throughout, including a large, moss-covered boulder in front and split geodes dotted through the flower beds.
"I found it all to be delightfully unique," another judge said. "It is quite unlike anything normally used in that way in gardens and created a combination that was a true masterpiece, making the whole yard an excellent representative for Garden of the Month."
Applications for Garden of the Month are available at the Cole County Extension Center and local garden centers or email suggestions to [email protected].