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Flower patches dot the landscape surrounding John and Dawn Clark’s home near Swea City, Iowa. “I call them heritage flower gardens because I have collected so many of the plants from friends, my Aunt Ella and my mom,” Dawn says. “Everything has a story to go with it.” While some patches feature one variety of plants such as day lilies, peonies or hostas, others have themes. One patch began with 50 tulip and daffodil bulbs given to Dawn on her fiftieth birthday. Another is a blanket of color thanks to the plant exchange at her garden club. Dawn also has a special wedding patch boasting beautiful calla lilies and star gazer lilies planted for her daughter’s wedding.

The colorful blooms offer beauty and texture beginning with the snow drops peeking through the drifts of melting snow in March through the first hard fall freeze. “I have plants blooming all the time,” she says. One of her favorite features is a water garden nestled outside their dining room window. “There are beautiful white Casa Blanca lilies along one edge of the water garden that we both enjoy,” Dawn says.

In addition to plants, John and Dawn also love animals. “We have a llama, miniature donkey and horses, sheep and a miniature calf along with our cats and spoiled dogs. People who know us know we are crazy about our animals and plants.” Although they live on a gravel road “in the middle of nowhere,” people drive by once in a while to check out their unique pets and look at the flowers Dawn says.

On any given summer day Dawn can be found outside working in her yard. “I can’t get enough of being outside. Working in my flower patches and mowing the lawn are awesome and they both are very relaxing to me,” she says. Her love for the outdoors shows in the beautiful blooms speckled throughout her yard and in the stories she shares about each flower patch. “Each bloom is unique and beautiful,” Dawn says. “My favorite thing about flower gardening is how God can make something so pretty and I can help Him display it.”