Don and Caren Kirk Honored for Yard of the Week

Moving into the brick bungalow at 280 North Main ten years ago meant returning to the home of his youth for Don Kirk, Jr. What it also meant was that he and wife, Caren, would walk into a ready made landscape, one that had established itself as among Payson City’s best kept lots for decades.

His dad, Don Kirk, Sr., was an immaculate groundskeeper at the home in which he and his wife, LaVois, raised their family since 1959. “He lived for the yard,” Don, Jr., said. “It was his life.”

Don, Jr., and Caren moved into the home after he passed away. They maintain the yard much like he had, all out of a sense of honor for a father who cared deeply about the place he called home.

Perennials started by the elder Kirk continue to thrive on the spacious corner lot: Bishop’s weed, myrtle, lilies, peonies, “Indian tobacco,” a backyard thick with vines and bamboo-like plants they and their grandkids at play refer to as “the jungle,” and the four o’clocks which bloom in morning at night, that Don, Sr., loved dearly. Old fruit trees continue to bear new fruit: apples and apricots among those borne in the recent hot summer weeks.

New varieties have arrived in part through the guidance of Caren’s good friend, Christie Peterson, whose work at Olson’s Garden Shoppe puts her in the know when it comes to what is ideal for local planting. Her recommendations this year have spurred continuous blossoms--all season long--through a variety of plants that awaken at different times. They guarantee there will always be some blooming going on at the Kirk’s Main Street home. A novelty this year, yet to appear on the scene, is a flower that Caren refers to as her “goblins,” unique flowers that are orange in hue and scheduled to blossom during the Halloween season.

Whatever the season, the Kirk home, with its cheery cherub statues, towering shade trees, and fragrant, alternating blossoms, is a delight and an asset to North Main. The landscape legacy started by the late Don Kirk, Sr., has been carried on by his loving family. Be sure to take a moment to appreciate the spirit that continues to grow as we celebrate the Kirk Home as Yard of the Week.