Lisa and Jon Asmussen earned the Yard of the Month award for the month of July – an award presented by the Dysart Development Corporation. The Asmussen house is located at 1105 Sherman Street and is situated on a large lot, perfect for a family with children. At first glance, the yard looks like any other well-kept and beautifully landscaped yard – but the flower beds and landscaping are filled with history, stories, and memories.

Many of the decorative large rocks in the flower beds are from Jon’s family farm where he grew up. When they built their shed in 2012, they used limestone from the foundation of Jon’s boyhood home to edge the flower beds. A 1950s Maytag wash tub sits on the east side of the home – once used by Jon’s mother, it is now used as a unique piece of dcor within a flower bed.

The patio features a quiet spot to rest under a pergola, with a fire pit nearby – the perfect spot for making memories. A swing set sits in the yard, directly across from a tree that the Asmussen children used as first base for games when they were younger. A decorative ball of old barbed-wire sits near the shed, a treasured reminder of Lisa’s grandmother’s farm near Traer.

Jon and Lisa have a large garden featuring a variety of fruits and vegetables – pretty much anything you could think of – from watermelon to zucchini, they’ve got it all. Jon is currently fostering a small peach tree, which he plans to transplant to join the two apple trees and two pear trees that they planted two years ago.

The shed is surrounded by colorful flowers meant to attract bees and butterflies to pollinate the garden?and it has worked! The family conserves water by using rainwater stored in their homemade rain barrel to water the garden. The rain barrel is surrounded by a homemade wooden house-like structure which their daughter Grace painted with flowers. They say that using the rainwater has made a big difference with the health of their garden plants.

The Asmussen family has put a lot of love and hard work into keeping their yard looking beautiful. If you see them around town, be sure to congratulate them!