Our First 2024 Landscape for Love Winner

IN LOVING MEMORY OF JULIA ROSE BEDNER

We are proud to present our first Landscape for Love Project of the year, designed to make the world more beautiful one person and one outdoor space at a time.

Winner: Lily Junker and Family

Why We Chose Them:

Lily Junker is a proud mom, wife, passionate gardener, full-time administrator of a local non-profit theater arts school and teacher for the ‘Special Actors’ program. In 2022, Lily, her husband Joe and toddler Ezri welcomed Milo to their family—a beautiful, sweet, bright-eyed baby boy who also happened to be born with a rare genetic disorder. Milo was diagnosed with epilepsy and had profound physical and cognitive delays that meant he would not speak, sit up, crawl or stand on his own.

Two-and-a-half years later, after a steep learning curve, doctor’s visits, hospital stays, medications, dogged advocacy and specialized therapies, Milo is thriving. Just recently, he began using an adaptive device that gives him the freedom to move in a way they weren’t sure would ever be possible.

Lily’s tiny but beloved garden, however, was not thriving. The vegetables, flowers and shrubs she planted around their lovely little 1930s home when they moved in had to wait. The family had new responsibilities and a new reality. In that time, weeds had taken over, beds were overgrown and much of their yard inaccessible and impractical for Milo.

Lily’s husband wrote to tell us how much it would mean to her to have a yard and garden that could be a place of peace and joy again. You had us at peace and joy.

the before

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Project Goals:

• remove thorny barberry from privet hedge where kids play
• refresh privet hedge with a clean, fresh look
• divide and transplant existing perennials
• expand front landscape bed
• add low-maintenance, long-flowering native perennials
• add an ornamental tree for screening and four-season interest
• Weed, edge and mulch beds for a fresh look
• Prune overgrown shrubs along the property border
• Fill in gaps in groundcovers
• Fix bed borders for easier maintenance
• Clear overgrown end of road
• Reset fence with additional support
• Build steps from the sidewalk to the road for easier loading/unloading
• Refresh kids’ clubhouse to improve access and simplify ongoing maintenance

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By The Numbers:

• 19 nominations and 2 winners (this is our first)
• 11 Bedner’s crew members
• 3 yards of mulch
• 105+ plants
• 1 full day in November

Plant Varieties: 

• Cercis canadensis ‘Black Pearl’
• Achillea millefolium ‘Moonshine’
• Asclepias tuberosa
• Astilbe chinensis ‘Dark Side of the Moon’
• Chasmanthium latifolium
• Helenium Sombrero
• Echinacea ‘Pow Wow White’
• Geranium ‘Rozanne’
• Hydrangea paniculata ‘Bobo’
• Ligustrum ‘Straight Talk’
• Lobelia cardinalis ‘Black Truffle’
• Nepeta ‘Cat’s Meow’
• Penstemon ‘Dark Towers’
• Phlox ‘Jeana’
• Physocarpus opulifolius ‘Panther’
• Pulmonaria ‘Raspberry Splash’
• Salvia caradonna
• Scabiosa ‘Peep Blue’
• Solidago flexicaulis
• Tricyrtis ‘Autumn Glow’

the after

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Lily, our wish for you is a smidge of garden therapy and magic when you need it most. It was our pleasure to simplify, refresh and make your outdoor space beautiful, sustainable and delightful for you and your whole family.