Sarah Puckett knows Mineola well...really well. She’s lived in the same neighborhood for all of her 83 years and, as you can imagine, has many stories to tell about her town. Her parents lived in what is now her home at 704 N. Johnson since the 1950s, across the street from Sarah’s grandparents. She learned to love gardening from watching her mother and grandmother and still plants flowers and weeds her flowerbeds.

In 2015 she was able to purchase the home and focused her attention on replacing sickly loropetalum along the sides of the property and a tired row of boxwoods in front with newer stock. The wisteria was unruly and overgrown, so after subduing it into a manageable size, she’s made sure it stays tamed.

Sarah prefers a simple, elegant look to her landscape and relies on large drift roses on the north and south sides of the house to provide color much of the year. The boxwoods in front are edged with liriope, and shrubs along the side are neatly trimmed into mushroom topiary. The redbud tree in back is a favorite, since its dazzling pink blossoms precede the awakening of many of her spring perennials.

She enjoys the bees and hummingbirds that visit and would love to create a new bed dedicated to flowers that attract them. She plants zinnias in the spring for summer blooms and mums and pansies in the fall to enjoy during cooler weather. All gardeners have had disappointments, however, and Sarah’s was sunflowers. Try as she might to grow them, their heads would only face the wrong direction, away from sight, so those bashful blooms couldn’t be appreciated.

She offers a tip for those who struggle with weeding. She uses a combination of Dawn dish soap, Epsom salts and vinegar to control weeds along her property line and says it really helps.

This holiday season, pots of bright red poinsettias and large hanging Christmas ornaments adorn the front porch. Sarah also likes to add rosemary “trees” there, though she says they don’t do well planted in her yard.

The Fannie Marchman Garden Club of Mineola has chosen the Puckett home as their December Yard of the Month.