Amy Bowman (photo by Erminja Maganja)
Erminja Maganja, Garden Club Publicity Chair
Letha Straub, who leads the Garden Club’s Yard of the Month project, has selected the yard of Tim and Amy Bowman as deserving of this honorary award. While Tim hails from Oklahoma and Amy from Kansas, they consider themselves Texans at heart, having lived here “as long as they can remember.” Having previously lived in Dallas, Lewisville, Highland Village, and Argyle, they made their way to the Ranch in 2019 and began the construction of their Aubrey model, which features an inviting entry courtyard and an expansive backyard overlooking the West Course.
Interestingly, the couple have dissimilar tastes related to garden design and plant selection. Tim prefers a clean, simple, tidy, and groomed landscape, whereas Amy leans towards a look that’s lush, crowded, overflowing, and free-form. They worked with their friend Robert Woods, owner of Native Springs Outdoor Living, to help combine their ideas and preferences to select plants and a design that pleased them both.
The Bowmans selected four live oaks to anchor their landscaping, viewing them as a beautiful, long-lived, shade-producing, low maintenance tree that also provides a touch of greenery year-round. They added a Little Gem Magnolia as an accent tree at the entrance of their courtyard. It is evergreen and offers large white blooms all summer. During autumn through spring, they enjoy a splash of color from a variety of shrubs, including white azaleas, pink Indian Hawthorn, and Nellie R. Stevens holly, plus seasonal plantings of colorful, happy pansies.
To create textural interest and color during spring through fall, they added beds in a kaleidoscope of color plantings of Pentas, Liriope, and the mis-named Mexican petunia. The landscape also includes several healthy Hardy Hibiscus to produce an explosion of blooms. For contrast, they planted the burgundy-leafed “fringe flower” shrub (Loropetalum chinense) sporting a natural, graceful shape, arching stems, and attracts pollinators to boot. And as a final touch, pots spilling over with English ivy, asparagus fern, Wave petunia, and columbine provide visual interest and perfectly placed dashes of color.
The couple have been married for 39 years and look forward to Tim retiring soon to allow more time together to do the things they love. You are invited to stop by to view Amy and Tim’s yard at 12304 Pepperidge Avenue. Please join us in congratulating the Bowmans as Robson’s Yard of the Month!
If you have a candidate for Yard of the Month, please contact Letha Straub at [email protected] or 580-490-1500.
For information about the Garden Club, contact Erminja at [email protected] or 916-804-5551.