Debbie Crane’s tidy yard won the McMinnville Garden Club’s April Yard of the Month award.
Marcus Larson/News-Register

Although very much involved with his blue popsicle, Debbie Crane’s grandson Caleb pauses a moment to sit with her on the front porch.
Marcus Larson/News-Register

Crane uses containers of seasonal flowers to add interest and color to her landscape.
Marcus Larson/News-Register

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She's not the first to have this reaction, but McMinnville resident Debra Crane was simultaneously honored and horrified when the McMinnville Garden Club presented her with its Yard of the Month award for April.

"How could they pick our yard?" she wondered. "It's the worst it's ever been. Usually, I'm very proud of our yard."

The yard is neat and tidy, with a center block of vivid green grass surrounded by bark dust planting beds showing off heather, daffodils, creeping phlox and a young Japanese maple opening its leaves in the first warm days of spring. A window box shows off a bright array of flowers in full, colorful bloom above a small fountain decorated with a bronze dragonfly. Potted primroses stand on the small porch by the front door.

Last winter's extended cold and heavy snowfall, however, took its toll on Crane's pride, killing a number of shrubs she had recently planted and leaving her yard distressingly plain.

There should have been azaleas blooming to the right of the driveway, a row of decorative shrubs along the house behind the pink-flowered heather shrubs. There should have been more color, more of Crane's personality.

It was a hard blow to take, given that Crane had just redone the entire front yard the previous year.

"Oh, it was terrible," she said. "I've never seen anything like it in Oregon - not here, at least."

She had to remove eight shrubs from the front yard, she said, and several from the back yard.

Crane and her husband have lived on the property, located at 1981 N.W. Woodland Drive in northwest McMinnville, for four years. She planned the entire landscape herself.

Crane loves working in her yard, but denied any special talent.

"Oh, I'm not a gardener," she said. "If I see something and like it, I buy it. I try to pay attention to what it says on the tag, and most of the time, I'm lucky. I would never call myself a gardener."

Nonetheless, it's a favorite hobby.

"My husband says I'm the only person who can go to the grocery store and come home with plants," she said. "I have a friend, and we go to all the far-away nursery centers trying to find the best buys."

* Favorite garden feature: "I like container gardening better than anything," she said. "They're the ones that live, usually. You can move the containers."

Another advantage; they're less work to replace.

"I think the most frustrating thing is if something doesn't work out - or it works too well! And you have to remove it. I keep my son handy for that."

Here are some of Crane's thoughts on her handiwork:

* Factors she considered in designing the garden: "It's just what I like."

* Time spent maintaining it: A considerable amount - especially this year, as she tries to repair the winter's damage.

"I love to work in the yard," Crane said. "I get to stay home; I don't work. So I get to spend a lot of time out here."

* How she began gardening: "I spent my summers with my grandparents, and we grew everything we ate," she said. "I love vegetable gardening, too, although urban gardens are a little small. I always tuck the tomato plants in somewhere, though."

* Why she enjoys it: "I like being creative, I love color and I don't mind getting my hands dirty," Crane said. "If I come in and have to spend an hour standing there scrubbing with the nail brush then I feel like I've accomplished something."