July’s Yard of the Month winner is Jennifer Chancellor of 2233 6^th Avenue.  Jennifer writes:

I bought the Craftsman Bungalow from Juan and Estela Barrera in January 2002. The Stalcups, who had lived in the home 28 years, sold it to the Barreras to restore and sell.  Our appointment to view the house was cancelled just as we drove up.  Our realtor, Shellie Gardner, was determined that we see the home, but unfortunately, two men working on the home, the owner’s father and father-in-law, wouldn’t allow it.  Shellie said unless someone could speak Spanish, we weren’t seeing the house.  My ex-husband, Richard, was fluent in 5 languages, Spanish being one of them; after a few words, they allowed us to walk through.  I was immediately sold on the house because of all the light streaming in 31 windows and multiple French doors.  The sunroom sealed the deal.

The home was built in 1923 by Mrs. A. W. Montague on land she purchased in 1915, from the John C. Ryan Land Company for $1,250, after the murder of her husband. Montague, a T&P railroad superintendent, had been shot by former employee, C.A. Myers, on January 20, 1915. The murder was front-page news in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram for a year. Montague had fired Myers after declaring him responsible for a train wreck.   Given Myer’s record, and the fact that Montague was alive at the hospital to name his killer, the jury convicted Myers and sentence him to death.  The Montague family paid a special guard to keep Myers from escaping from the jail because of its “weakened condition.”  Though the Fort Worth Socialist Society managed a brief stay of execution, and Myer’s own wife testified that he was mentally unsound, state-appointed psychiatrists disagreed, and C.A. Myers was sent to the gallows November 1915 (Fort Worth Star-Telegram, August 12, 1915).

Mrs. A.W. Montague lived in the home with her daughter, Grace, a kindergarten teacher, for 14 years before selling the home in 1937 to Mary Buie. The home has been well-cared-for over the years by 6 homeowners.  Among the home’s unique fixtures are original iron sconces flanking the front door.  The glass was missing in them when I moved in.  I found stained glass made by Kokomo from the Merry Go Round Stained-Glass store in Fort Worth, that would have been appropriate and restored the glass myself in the fixtures.

I tell people I “break glass for fun” as I am a mosaic artist in my free time. On one of the columns of the front porch you will find a mosaic sign created by myself that references the name of the home, “Hacienda de Hounds” aptly named for my beloved rescue basset hounds and the true rulers of the home.

The home historically had been painted white with dark green trim. In 2004 we took on the task of removing the multiple layers of white paint down to the bare wood on the house and original garage and painted it ourselves. This project took an entire year. Many a neighbor at that time stopped to comment at the work. They probably thought we were crazy, but we wanted it done right and for the paint job to last. On weekends, we worked from sun up until sundown. I painted the house with Sherwin-Williams Duration paint, which has really held up over the years in the Texas sun. I selected Clary Sage for the main color, Dover White for the eaves and trim, and Flower Pot for the doors and window mullions, as matches the brick porch columns.

A crepe myrtle and orange-flowering cannas were in the front yard when I moved in; they are still there today. There was a rather overgrown and ugly holly bush obscuring the front windows, which I removed. I dug up the grass along the front of the house to create some flower beds. While digging I discovered some bulbs in the dirt, which later turned out to be gladiolus and red spider lilies, a lovely surprise our first spring in the home. Over the years I have expanded the flower beds, which meant more trips to Whiz-Q-Stone to expand the stone borders. I truly enjoy gardening — even in the Texas heat – because it is a great stress reliever. I get my love of gardening from my Father. His collection of day lilies, back home in Wisconsin, numbers over 50 varieties. Mom, on the other hand, is a garden appreciator: when she comes for a visit, she enjoys the yard from my porch swing.

In my flower beds, I stick to perennials. It’s fun watching the butterflies and the hummingbirds stopping by for a visit in the garden. I try to plant things that will attract them, like Mexican bush sage and Greg’s mistflower. I love watching the changes plants go through from season to season and for me it’s also a little less maintenance. I do have some annuals in pots, but keep them to a minimum.   I love going to the biennial Native Plant Society of Texas (NPSOT) plant sales, because their products perform well in our environment and are healthy, as they were nurtured by NPSOT members. I also love Weston Gardens’ great selection of native plants. Some of the plants in my garden, such as my swamp rose and Cramoisi Superieur rose bush, are from the now-defunct Southside Preservation Hall plant sales.

My flowerbeds consist of a variety of Texas natives. I have Prairie phlox, which blooms in spring, and Carolina phlox, which blooms all summer. Hibiscus, a variety of coneflowers, yellow columbine, wild petunias, moonflowers, iris, Mexican bush sage, fall aster, pincushion flowers, greg’s mistflower, Mexican mint marigold and purple heart. There are rock roses in pots on the front steps, and pots with herbs like oregano, basil and chives on the porch that I use in my cooking. I also have a variety of day lilies and four o’clocks. To help provide some shade to the yard, I planted a Monterrey Oak, which provides some great shade for my neighbor to the north, and a Chinquapin Oak in the parkway.

Among my friendship plants, I count the lovely white irises that bloom every Spring in the flower beds near the front steps are from the garden of my friend and Master Gardener Margaret Shuping. They are a fragrant, night-blooming, low-maintenance plant which is quite majestic-looking when in bloom. My four o’clocks are a plant that keeps on giving; they volunteered into my neighbors’ yards, via the birds. Our 80-year-old Savannah neighbor Harry had white, yellow, fuchsia and red blooms and the plants I have come from his gardens. Our late basset hound, Daisy, loved to trample through the four o’clocks, so they hold fond memories for me of Daisy and Harry.

Speaking of plants that transplant themselves, I made the mistake of letting wild violets from my neighbor’s yard creep into my flowerbed. They will eventually take over and crowd out your other flowers. I had to do battle with them this year and dig them up; I lost some plants in the process. Now if I see a sign of one, I immediately pull it up. However, if you aren’t much of a gardener and need something invincible, wild violets may be for you.

I hang birdhouses from the trees, the porch and eaves to encourage avian visitors. There are also “face rocks,” as I call them: mosaic stone pieces that I create with faces, hidden amongst the plants to keep an “eye” on the garden. Who doesn’t love a bit of whimsy in a garden! I also have some repurposed glass pieces I have added over time from an artist in Hamilton, TX who comes every year to the Funky Finds sale at the Will Rogers Center. Though I have planted with seasonal succession in mind, colorful yard art helps add color during the times when not much blooms in the yard. When we had that massive hail storm in March of 2016, I thought for certain all my glass and mosaic yard art would be destroyed and I would be picking up glass for weeks. I have a large bottle tree in my backyard with 21 vintage bottles which were all fine. My patio chairs in the backyard didn’t fare as well: they were shredded.

Like my garden, Fairmount has variety and in my 16 years that I have lived here I have been blessed to call “Hacienda de Hounds” my home and to be one of the caretakers of a piece of history.

Our thanks for her lively article and beautiful yard to Jennifer Chancellor, along with a $25 gift card to Calloway’s Nursery. The Fairmount YOTM committee is Leah Suasnovar and Bonnie Blackwell.