From Rock Springs Color

Mark and Penny Carnevale moved into their home at 178 Redington Street way back in 1975.

The previous owner had a garden, but nothing like the front and back yards look like now.

“Oh, I don’t think they’d recognize it if they saw it now,” Penny said as she watered a few plants in the backyard. “We’ve got rock, we’re on a cliff so we have a rock garden, some of the places get very little sun, so we’ve worked with that, and other areas get get planty of sunshine, we’ve planted accordingly and have wonderful colors all over.”

Mark and Penny raised three children since they moved to town, Val, Cassie, and their son Don.

“We’re on a cliff so we’ve got sedum and low-growing ivy on the rocky areas, it’s a turnover every few years, these are strong plants that flourish here (in the back yard),” Penny said.

Sedum is the name of a group of flowering plants that are also called “stonecrops” for their ability to flourish in rocky areas. They are most prevalent in the north and some are annuals, others classified as creeping herbs and shrubs.

The Carnevale’s backyard is also full of clematis occidentalis, a species of hearty flowering plants that grow under tough conditions, it's a member of the buttercup family and is found in the northern United States and southern parts of Canada.

“We’ve got areas where we can dig deep and plant and other areas where you dig an inch down and you hit rock, so we’ve had to work around that,” Penny said

Much of the backyard gets very little sunlight, but the front yard gets sunshine to spare and is awash in color. Day lilies, Phlox, Black-Eyed Susans, and the Rose of Sharon.

“It’s wonderful to have the colors in the front, I love my gardens,” Penny said. “I can come out to just water and all of a sudden I’ve spent four or five hours working in the yard.”

Phlox may be blue, pale blue, violet, pink, bright red or white, and are a favorite snack of many types of moth larvae, so Penny has to keep an eye on the pests. The name Rose of Sharon applies to several types of seasonal flowering plants, and was mentioned in 1611 in the King James Version of the Bible.

“I love it out here, looking at what has grown and seeing the motion of the plants is so rewarding, to create something and watch it flourish is wonderful,” Penny said.  “We’ve had some squirrels come through that think that this is theirs, some chipmunks too, a lot of animals come through the yard.”

Mark Carnevale is semi-retired from the GE, “I go in once in a while and work on a few things,” he said.

Penny works as a volunteer accountant and her busiest time is of course, April, tax time.

“In the fall, I miss it and look forward to working again, but by the end of March, oh boy, I can’t wait until it’s over,” she said. “I can’t wait until I’m back in the yard.”