September 2026 honoree
Miriam L. and Dick R.
Resident since 2014
2902 Maple Springs Blvd.
The Maple Springs Neighborhood Association’s Garden Club is happy to announce its recipients for our September “Yard of the Month”. It goes to Miriam and Dick who have lived at 2902 Maple Springs Blvd since 2014. Miriam is an exceptional portrait artist and designer, and Dick is an esteemed journalist.
Gardening is like a school – you grow with it, you try and fail with it, and you learn with it.
A Texas Journalism Legacy
Their paths first crossed from two very different locations. Dick was raised in nine small towns in Texas, the son and grandson of small town journalists. After receiving a bachelors in philosophy and a masters in English, he ended up following in his families profession.
Where Their Paths Crossed
Miriam was born and raised in Venezuela and came to the USA in 1981 to get a masters in communication at UT Austin. During her studies, she had to get an internship at ‘Texas Monthly Magazine’ and started working for Dick. He needed a good Spanish speaker to help with articles he was writing about Mexico. Sparks ignited and they married in 1986.
A Life of Travel and Discovery
Together they traveled to Mexico and South America interviewing Presidents and Revolutionaries and everyone in between. In 1990 they both received a Fellowship to Harvard University for a year, with Dick studying political science and Miriam studying design and drawing.
Finding Their Home on Maple Springs
After 10 years of being a tenured professor of Journalism at North Carolina State University in Raleigh, they moved to Dallas to be with Dick’s aging mother and brother. The perfect house for them in Dallas had to be walking distance to a grocery store, pharmacist, bank and hospital and have a basement. They found what they were looking for in our Oak Lawn Heights neighborhood; a split-level house on Maple Springs Blvd.
Turning a Property Into a Canvas
The house came with a large ¾ acre creek front property. As an artist, Miriam saw it as a canvas, but a different canvas for gardening. She had to try to find balance with the house as the main focal point and the gardens as ornamental enhancements. Long rows of boxwood hedges in the front and back helped to take your eye on a journey to her gardens.
Learning What the Garden Needed
First thing she did was research on her computer which plants would succeed in this particular climate zone. Then in her backyard she dug a 25 foot long, 1 foot deep garden and replaced the clay soil with a mixture of potting soil, manure, compost and decomposed granite for good drainage. From there she began planting ‘test plants’ to see what would work. Russian sage, firecracker plant, day lily’s, daffodils, fox glove, moon flower, phlox, white wild indigo. All flowers work fine till summer comes. She kept what flourished and began exploring more native plants that were hardier.
Creating a Creekside Sanctuary
She then took on the challenge of clearing the lower creek property, which had grown to an impenetrable forest of brush and thistles. She built a three-tiered terrace of stone and staircase down to the lower grounds and filled them with colorful perennials. The newly cleared grounds were protected by the shade of the ancient, giant trees of cottonwood and elm. This clearing gave her access to the creek, access to the fish and large turtles, access to a sanctuary away from it all.
A Garden and a Life Still Growing
Miriam & Dick’s days are quieter now, far from the travel, deadlines and moves. They have both come to love their home and their neighborhood. Her canvas is starting to feel complete and she has come to terms with dealing with the challenges at hand. To her, gardening is like a school – you grow with it, you try and fail with it, and you learn with it. And she feels at this stage in her life, she is getting closer to graduation.
Yard of the Month is sponsored by North Haven Gardens.
