By Karin Glendenning
Community News Writer
Last week Peggy and Everette Dyer’s Red Bank yard was one of the gardens featured on the Tennessee Valley Daylily Society’s annual garden tour. The Dyers were thrilled to be included and enjoyed visiting with the avid gardeners who came by for a look at their handiwork.
According to Mrs. Dyer, she and her husband didn’t know a thing about gardening until they decided to redo their front yard in 1991. They had been inspired by watching “The Victory Garden” on PBS, and set out to transform their space into what has become a showplace for their hard work and ingenuity.
“We learned a lot from Daylily Society members,” Mrs. Dyer said. She also got ideas from visiting Ameraflora, a garden exposition in 1992 in Columbus, Ohio.
To get started, they stripped the front yard of its plants, moving them to the back and started from scratch. Mrs. Dyer designed a triangular-shaped garden for this area, where she has planted billowing yellow daylilies around a small fountain. More daylilies are in beds on either side of the walkway against the house.
In the backyard, which Mrs. Dyer said was once used for extra parking, the couple really wrought magic. They amended the soil and started planning beds.
“What first attracted us to this yard were the hedges,” she said. The Dyers envisioned a “secret garden,” a private space where they could relax and enjoy the outdoors. But they haven’t done much relaxing because the plantings are so extensive they require many hours of weeding and tending.
While there are many daylilies in the backyard, there are also hostas, from tiny miniatures to huge specimens, azaleas, mahonias, calla lilies, lamb’s ear, columbine, canna lilies, iris, ribbon grass, Oriental lilies, and too many more to mention.
Across the back of the yard, they have planted a line of Leland Cypress to act as a screen. The result is a verdant, enclosed space with curving beds, winding paths and a thriving lawn at its center that seems like an oasis.
The Dyers’ enthusiasm toward gardening is infectious. They love to share not only their plants with visitors, but also the pleasure they have found in their addictive pastime.
E-mail Karin Glendenning at kglendenning@tfpcommunitynews.com
