The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

East side garden outlasts competition

Contributed photo Susan Hileman’s dog Mazzie greets visitors at her home. Hileman won the Garden of the Month award from the Hamilton Garden Club.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Thanksgiving tips to make the holiday meal easy and delicious
6:17 p.m.
Are you willing to watch your children fail?
3:24 p.m.
Animal clinic collecting food to feed hungry family pets
12:37 p.m.
When it comes to health, Michigan tops Ohio
11/20/09
Dad goes into overdrive with daughter at the wheel
11/19/09
> More lifestyle headlines

By Eric Robinette, Staff Writer 4:26 AM Sunday, October 25, 2009

HAMILTON — Gardening season may be more or less over, but Susan Hileman capped the year by winning 2009’s final Garden of the Month award — partly for being able to make her plants last so long.

Hileman, who lives on Minor Avenue, was incredulous when told she had won the award.

“I thought at first someone was playing a joke. Of all the beautiful homes in Hamilton, why would they pick mine?” she said.

Part of the reason was that Ann Coombs, chairwoman of the awards committee of the Hamilton Garden Club, wanted to honor a home on the city’s east side. But she also could not resist the garden when she happened by it.

“I was driving through the neighborhood, and I said to my husband, ‘Look at that house, it’s magnificent,’ ” she said. “I liked the fact that she made a lovely display on the front porch, and the backyard was very meticulously planned.”

Hileman has mostly flowers in her yard, likening it to an English garden. She grew up in Florida, and when she moved here, took some of the flowers that grew there. The flowers in her most recent garden include everything from impatiens to clematis and more.

“It’s really a garden for me to see what I can grow. It’s a hodgepodge of everything I just want to walk outside and see,” Hileman said.

Even after last week’s freeze killed off most of her plants, Hileman still found something to enjoy as late as Friday, Oct. 23.

“I think (the award) was mostly because I kept trying to keep it up. I still have some things hanging on. ... It was very pretty coming home. The rain made all the leaves fall, and it was just beautiful,” Hileman said.

Coombs said she was encouraged by the positive response to the garden awards, and even though this is the last gardening award this year, the club is considering a best holiday display award.

Contact this reporter at (513) 705-2836

or erobinette@coxohio.com.

Share this article