Jon Papp, president of the Rainbow Garden Club for 1998-2000, has been gardening for about 16 years. "My father did a lot of gardening when I was a kid," Jon says. "He always had a vegetable garden, where he specialized in tomatoes, and a rose garden, and I guess that's how I got interested."

After moving to his current home in 1994 he found that the yard was overgrown with no visible beds. "But one of the things that attracted me to the house was that I had five large beautiful pecans and two Red Cedars in the back yard," he explains. After mowing the first time, he discovered several large yucca's and a few overgrown beds.

Since then, Jon has been very busy in the yard. In the front yard, Three beds have been put in with many native drought resistant plants. Salvias, lambs ear, coreopsis, sage, as well as many potted cacti are located near the entrance to the house. Three trees -- burr, sawtooth, and chinkapin oaks -- have been planted in the front yard.

In the back yard Jon has added a three tiered above ground 4,000 gallon pond with two waterfalls as well as koi, tiger salamanders and a variety of water plants from lilies to lizards tails, cattails and lotus.

He's also added a 600 sq. ft. deck with a container garden including many cactus, ferns and hanging baskets; a 50 ft long native plant bed with several large yucca's; a 150 gallon in ground pond; and a meditation garden in the shade of five large pecan trees.

Next, he plans to build a small separate building for garden equipment and also purchase a greenhouse.

Jon says that "most recently, in the last 5 years or so, I've become very interested in native plantings and water gardening. I've had an interest in cacti and succulents for many years. I'm also very involved in tree planting projects across the city. I've been involved in projects in east Dallas, Pleasant Grove, and Oak Cliff. Currently we have another Oak Cliff project scheduled for this November for forty more 15 ft. burr and chinkapin oaks to be planted in the neighborhood."

Jon has been a member of the club since 1997.

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