A corner lot on Boonville Road features a myriad of neat flower beds, flanked by two pin oak trees in the front.
Peggy Salmons has been adding and improving the place since she built her retirement home at 318 Boonville Road nine years ago.
This year it has been named the May Garden of the Month by the Bittersweet Garden Club and Central Missouri Master Gardeners.
"It was absolutely perfect in every way - design, maintenance and variety of plantings," a judge said. "At many points in the garden, it would have been desirable to sit and linger.
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"For a still fairly young garden, it is just wonderful. The hard work shows in every corner."
It was brush and cedar trees. Now it has a lush lawn dotted with shrubs, flowers and other ornamental plants.
Her first step was augmenting the soil.
"It's Missouri soil - not that great, a lot of clay," she said.
That's when she became well acquainted with the city's compost site.
Not one to take on more than she can handle at a time, the yard has been a work in progress. Eventually, she hopes to have only tiny pieces of lawn to mow with the majority of her property covered in manicured beds.
During home construction, a retaining wall was built in front of the house. That created a perfect location for a hidden garden she built later.
The first planned flower bed was along the front home's edge.
"You can't have a bare front," Salmons said.
As time went on, she saw "too much grass" looking out her windows, and that's how the rest of the beds came to be.
A naturalized, stone walkway - which Salmons laid herself - takes one from the front yard to the backyard through a corridor of ivy growing on a stone wall to the left and to the right a variety of shade-lovers, including ligularia, Solomon's seal and ferns.
Judges particularly enjoyed the blue-eyed grass lining the walkway in the backyard.
"It's just fun to walk around and see what's blooming," Salmons said.
Another of Salmons' oldest projects was the rear property line bed, which grows wider each season as she expands her plantings.
Young trees have been planted with their mature, shade-giving future in mind. And a pergola above the patio makes a pleasing scene covered in wisteria.
Covering part of the garage's back wall is an espalier training a pyracantha, which yields white flowers in the spring and orange berries in the fall.
Salmons uses a few annuals for color, but the majority of her garden is covered with perennials, many of which have been grown, divided and regrown there.
"I like to move plants around," she said. "Dividing perennials is good for the plants and good for the pocketbook."
A cute tool shed at the rear corner of her lot provides a tidy place to keep her gardening essentials, while also creating a visual appeal with surrounding additional beds and a birdfeeder area.
After retirement, Salmons took the Master Gardener classes, where she learned more about her hobby. But more importantly, she appreciates the connections she's made with other gardeners.
Salmons has learned some natives and self-seeding perennials can get out of control easily. She's also discovered the value of ornamental grasses.
"I wouldn't garden if I didn't enjoy it," Salmons said. "If I like it, you'll see it repeated."
Some of her favorite plants include Helen Baustine lamb's ear, sedum, boxwood, lavender, hydrangea, Harry Lauder's walking stick, loose strife and brandywine viburnum.
"Everything about the garden was meticulously maintained," another judge said. "Peggy's incorporation of interesting plants that we don't get to see every day made this yard truly special!"