Decker home chosen as Yard of the Month

The home of Brandon and Stephanie Decker at 108 Northview, Monette, was chosen as July Yard of the Month. A special recognition ceremony was held at 5 p.m. July 23.

City Beautification Committee member Ernestine Harrell presented the Deckers with a commemorative certificate, which read "The home of Brandon and Stephanie Decker has been recognized as having the most beautifully landscaped and manicured yard in the entire Monette Community for the month of July 2013." Beautification Committee member Nicole Stewart presented the Deckers with a hanging basket of purple Wandering Jew. Also on hand for the presentation were Jaxton Decker, 6, and Nash Decker, 3.

A yellow and brown "Yard of the Month" sign was placed in the Decker front yard to acknowledge the beautification award.

Mr. Decker is employed by Entergy Arkansas as a relay technician. Mrs. Decker teaches first grade at BIC West Elementary. Jaxon will start kindergarten this fall at BIC West and Nash attends Little Magical Minds.

The Decker's spacious home was built by them in 2011.

"We sketched the rough draft of the home plans and they were professionally designed by Ashley Design and Consulting," Mrs. Decker said.

The home contains 3,100 square feet of living space, with four bedrooms, three and a half baths, living room, formal dining room, kitchen, safe room and upstairs play room.

The home is a modern design with an exterior construction of brick accented with natural stone. It sits on two-thirds of an acre lot. The front of the house has a sidewalk, edged with paver stones, that makes a trail from the driveway completely around the house providing an outline for the landscaping. The landscaping is highlighted with a colorful variety of flowering plants and shrubs, large natural stones, concrete statues, a bench and a birdhouse. The back yard is enclosed with a canyon brown stained privacy fence.

The landscaping was designed by Stephanie. The entire family provided the labor for planting. The two large crepe myrtles were installed by All Scapes Nursery of Jonesboro.

The landscaping contains a variety of lilies including Blue Nile, Tiger, and day lilies, crepe myrtles, Encore Azaleas, zebra grasses, Purple Hearts, Goldmound Spiraeas, Abelia Kaleidoscopes, Knockout Roses, Sky Pencils, nandinas and accent lighting.

The concrete statues and bench came from Mrs. Decker's childhood home and the birdhouse was given to her by her sons for Mother's Day this year.

The Deckers are planning to landscape the front portions of the privacy fence, and future plans are to create a flower garden around the back patio and install an irrigation system. The boys have requested a large tree be planted for them.

Other Beautification members attending the presentation included Chairman Barbara Suber, Steve Suber and Nan Snider.