Families light up Fairmont Drive
Stopping to smell the flowers
Arlene Marturano marturanoa@ yahoo.com

The Starlings

"I just love Christmas, decorations and lights!" exclaims Annette Starling. She has been decorating her present front yard garden for the past three years. Set- up takes a week of intensive work to edge the sides of the property in lights, string more lights around the porch, the swing, and throughout the camellias, azaleas, and dogwoods. Mild weather this season keeps impatiens, begonias, roses, and geraniums adding color to the festive lights.

The Starling's winter garden is impressive too. Situated in the backyard is a homemade greenhouse filled with blossoming and fruiting tomatoes, a vertical cage supporting the remnants of an abundant crop of butter beans, and a wide green ribbon of turnips, rutabaga, and mustard greens. Collards have been chewed to the ground by squirrels.

Bill Starling has worked to enrich the soil by tilling under all the deciduous leaves over the past 60 years.

The Harmons

Mary Harmon recreates a storyboard of Christmas characters in her front yard. Over a span of 40 years she has collected outdoor Christmas decorations including carolers, geese, angels, elves, candles, nutcrackers, and Mr. and Mrs. Santa. Each year she designs a new scene. All the bows accompanying ornaments are made by Mary.

The Harmons' front door is filled with Christmas decorations to delight guests and passers- by.

In a week and a half of daily effort she is able to place, pin and tie strings and nets of lights from the porch to the perimeter of the property. Dogwood, azalea, and crepe myrtle are transformed into magical memories for her five grandchildren, two great- grandchildren and nieces and nephews. Azaleas lining her front porch hold 450 lights per shrub.

Harmon stores her displays in the bed of an 18 wheeler owned by her husband and housed at their farm. She laughs, "If I buy another piece, my husband will haul me out."

The Starling and Harmon gardens will be lit for holiday viewing through Christmas Day. These gardens and others can be viewed along Fairmont Drive between Leesburg Road and Hazelwood in southeastern Richland County.

The Starlings make stringing Christmas lights fun.