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Vicki Behrens’ yard chosen as Dysart’s first ‘Blue Ribbon Flowers of the Month’ for 2025

West Street address features backyard bird oasis hidden from busy school route

Vicki Behrens pictured in her West Street front yard in Dysart beside her Blue Ribbon Flowers of the Month sign. Behrens yard was given the designation by the Dysart Garden Club for the month of June. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

DYSART – If a green thumb is genetic, Vicki Behrens certainly added to the evidence this past June by receiving the Dysart Garden Club’s ‘Blue Ribbon Flowers of the Month’ less than one week after her older sister Donna Young received a similar designation from the Tipton Chamber of Commerce.

“It was my mother, she passed [the green thumb] on to us. We were farm girls,” Behrens, who grew up in Cedar County, told the newspaper in mid-June during a tour of her yard. For nearly 50 years, Behrens, a retired nurse, and her husband, retired educator and coach Rich Behrens have lived on the knoll just south of Dysart Middle School at 601 West Street. While their tidy front yard features a large wrap-around spring bulb and perennial bed, the backyard is best described as a sanctuary with its large deck shaded by two towering maple trees. Behrens – who has been recovering from two rounds of surgery which have made navigating this year’s growing season rather tricky – loves nothing more than spending time seated under the trees’ shade watching birds flit back and forth from the feeders to the safety of the maples.

The deck also doubles as her garden these days with potted tomatoes interspersed among the pots of annuals. New this year, her and Rich’s adult children gifted her with a large, raised garden box for Mother’s Day, a box she has filled with annuals of every color.

On the day the newspaper visited, a massive patch of asparagus swayed in the breeze downhill from the deck. Nurturing asparagus – and giving it away – seems to be a remnant from Behrens’ childhood days on the farm.

“My husband loves asparagus, but it’s hard to keep weeded [these days]. I used to give it away in handfuls. We bought the roots in the beginning.”

Vicki Behrens smiles while seated on her back deck in Dysart on Thursday, June 19. Behrens’ yard was designated the Blue Ribbon Flowers of the Month for June by the Dysart Garden Club. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Ask Behrens most any question about an annual or perennial flower, a vegetable, or even a native, wild species and the answer comes quickly. When asked where she picked up all her knowledge, she said it was mostly from her mother or through trial and error before adding with a chuckle, “I also use Google.”

Most of the annuals Behrens has planted in pots throughout her yard come from an Amish farm north of Tama County.

“What they put into them, I can’t buy anywhere else,” she explained.

Conversing with Behrens, it becomes evident rather quickly her healing tendencies as a nurse spill over into her gardening. Before retirement, in both the ER and later as a school nurse for the Union Community School District, she found love and kindness was all some patients really required.

“Sometimes they just needed a little TLC. And a bandaid.”

An American robin seemingly poses for a photo near one of Vicki Behrens’ colorful railing planters on June 19 in Dysart. PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

Words to live by. Those who nurture nature — green thumb or otherwise — reap so much more than just the blooms on the flower.

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER

PHOTO BY RUBY F. MCALLISTER