The American Four-Square home of Bob Zetnick and Ken Davis at 1412 S. Adams presents a soothing oasis just two blocks from the hustle of Magnolia’s restaurant district. The home’s two-story, cube-shaped exterior, painted in a soothing gray-green palette, compliments plantings such as Mountain Laurel, which are also in cool and neutral tones, with a few bright autumnal accents to mark changing seasons.

1412 S. Adams

The front yard of 1412, though compact, is divided into “stages” and areas that use transitions and ornament to draw the eye in and upward to the wide and welcoming front porch. The couple has incorporated a large variety of Texas native and adaptable plants into the landscape. Their first major installation, a Mountain Atlas Cedar, anchors the design in scale, shading and concept. A visual and auditory counterpoint to the slender conifer on the left, is a curved, neoclassical lions’ head fountain burbling on the right. Traveling up the stone path, the eye is drawn to potted plants and petrified wood on the steps and porch. The combination of landscaping, hardscaping and decor makes the Zetnick/Davis design the choice for the April Fairmount Yard of the Month.

In the early 2000s, Zetnick and Davis were living in Marfa when the influx of new residents changed the town’s dynamic. Trying to escape what they felt was the new “uppity-ness,” they looked from Albuquerque to their former home in Dallas, finally settling on Fort Worth’s historic Fairmount district in 2006. The house they chose, constructed in 1910, had been recently renovated and featured many Craftsman influences. Looking at the house, renovated extensively in 2004, they felt that both the structure and Fairmount had potential, and they appreciated the feel of the neighborhood. A few years later, just as Magnolia was adding more bars, coffee shops, and restaurants, they increased the square footage of the house and added a garage apartment in the back yard, all while maintaining the characteristic design elements of the home and inspirational structures from the early nineteen-teens.

Zetnick has been gardening all his life, beginning alongside his father as a child. Davis’ professional background includes a stint at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, an influence strongly felt in the Asian elements in the landscape. Among their many vocations, they now do landscape design.

The front yard was initially planned as an herb garden, but has developed from potager et jardin d’herbes to entertainment space through their study of Craftsman design and its Asian influences, and through acquiring plants from neighbors and local nurseries (Calloway’s, Weston Gardens and Tim’s Landscapes); still others were brought from their Marfa home. One strongly felt influence is Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio in Oak Park, Illinois, with its iconic courtyard punctuated by the beautiful split-leaved Gingko tree. Part of the vast array balancing the Asiatic imports and the Texas natives include a 1924 antique rose, Woolly Butterfly Bush, Salvia Greggii, Lentheimer Muhly (an ornamental grass), the white-flowered Mexican Plum tree, Flame Leaf Sumac, Mountain Laurel, Cross Vine and Possum Holly and Japanese Maple.

Our thanks and a $35 Gift Certificate from CC’s Touch of Nature go to Bob and Kevin, owners of our April Yard of the Month.

Yard of the Month selection committee — Steve Cocanower, Susan Harper and Bonnie Blackwell.