Brenda Ahearn/The Star
Diana Twomey poses Tuesday with her "gardening buddy," Brady, in her prize-winning garden in Bowie.
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For Ed Bice, gardening is a way to give local wildlife a habitat. For Dorothy Campbell, it is a way to make her own home more like her habitat of preference, the American Southwest. Both were among the 22 Bowie residents to receive awards from the city for the construction and high level of maintenance of their gardens.
The 13th Annual Beautification Awards were held Sept. 25 at the Bowie Senior Center by the city of Bowie and Soroptimist International of Bowie-Crofton. According to organizers, the awards are meant to encourage environmental awareness and creativity through projects that beautify the community.
"It's good therapy," said Diana Twomey, who was awarded the distinction of All Star Garden after her fourth year as an honoree. "Planting flowers is planting love."
Packed with brightly colored flowers such as canna lilies and crape myrtles, Twomey said she regularly spends two to six hours working in her garden each day. The dedication has helped to make her garden not only her sanctuary but also a retreat for native birds. Twomey estimates she spends between $300 to $500 each year on new plants and maintenance but said the cost is starting to decrease as many of her flowers are re-emerging annually.
Others like Ed and Dorothy Bice, who received a Three Star Maintenance award for three years of high quality work, agree creating a wildlife habitat is rewarding but also feel pride in the large scale transformation their yard has undergone.
A small pond was part of their backyard when the Bices moved into their Bowie home in 1986. After sprucing it up for several years, Ed Bice decided the best thing was to redo it entirely. The resulting 11-foot by 16-foot pond and waterfall chain now houses not only goldfish, but some frogs, snakes and birds as well.
"With pond people, everything is bigger," Ed Bice said. "You try to make it better every year so that's what I've done."
Improvements resulting in the Bices' most recent award have included the introduction of bright red Japanese blood grass, stones and pebbles encircling and leading up to the pond, and a Japanese lantern hung over it. Dorothy Bice estimates they spent $1,800 originally to build the pond but said the annual upkeep of the pond costs very little.
Neighbor Margaret Suddeth, who also gardens but did not enter the contest, said when residents like the Bices make the extra effort to transform their yards, it has a positive effect on everyone.
"I think it's good when anybody makes an extra effort," Suddeth said. "I think it can inspire others to take better care of their yards."
While some want to imitate local habitats to attract native species of animals, Campbell said she designed a Southwestern garden this year to make herself feel more at home. Although not a Southwestern native, Campbell said she is a big fan of Southwestern art and has designed her interior decor to have a desert flair. Her garden is composed of all Southwestern plants, including plenty of cacti.
Winner of the Distinguished Side Yard award, she said the addition of the Southwestern plot makes her feel more at home in Maryland's distinctly temperate climate.
Awards distributed include Distinguished Yard to Todd Kear; All Star Garden to Donna Bayes, Scott and Cheri Ogilvie, William West IV, Linda Carmen and Diana Twomey; Two Star Maintenance to John Bednarczyk, Kristine Ferriera, Jim and Ginna Galentine and Patricia Lopes; Three Star Maintenance to Dorothy and Ed Bice, Claire Coleman, Edmund and Janet St. Jean, Randel Mars, Richard Wilson and Marlene Boylan; Distinguished Backyard to Virginia Smith; Distinguished Business to the Sunoco gas station on Route 450; Distinguished Front Yard to Tulip Grove Elementary School; Distinguished Townhouse to Heather Dunahoo; and Distinguished Side Yard to Dorothy Campbell.
E-mail Andrea Noble at anoble@gazette.net.
