Parks & Recreation Department - Notable Yards 2007

INDIAN RIVER. Benny and Hae (Oke) Redden. 1337 Sanjo Farms Drive.

Located in the Kemps River area, the Redden’s yard is a charming mix of ornamental and edible plants and trees.  Hae (Oke) Redden and her mother Kim Boyok use their familiarity with Korean horticulture to utilize their yard for delicious edibles.

Fruit trees thrive in their yard—Korean pear, American pear, fig, persimmon, and peach trees.  The charming mother-daughter gardeners protect the fruit on their trees from birds by wrapping each piece of fruit neatly with old newspaper.  In addition, they have made a “noise maker” out of empty cans from which a long string can be pulled by hand.  The noise scares hungry birds away from the fruit trees.

In a small vegetable garden next to the deck, many varieties of beautiful vegetables are grown, tightly spaced and supported by string tautly strung between each row.  Vegetables grown include sesame, cucumber, hot peppers, green peppers, tomatoes, squash, and beans. 

In addition to the vegetable garden, vegetables have been planted in every flower garden.  Creeping squash plants make a beautiful border.  Eggplants are lovely as the background for lower-growing flowers.  Red hot pepper plants provide a punch of color.

In addition to edible plants and trees, ornamental plants and trees abound, including hollyhocks, pentas, chrysanthemums, gladiolas, geraniums, creeping flox, vincas, zinnias, azaleas, crepe myrtles, Japanese maples, and more.  One side of the deck is bordered by several varieties and colors of roses—red, yellow, pink, coral, white, and more.