Curb appeal does not begin to describe Sach Lerew's home in Spearfish. Her green thumb and eye for design have turned her corner double-sized lot into a gardening wonder.

Lerew and her husband, Donnie, have lived in their 100-plus-year-old home in the old midtown section of town since 1988. She said other than some existing large trees, the yard was not landscaped when they purchased the property.

"We had about five black walnut trees, but we cut them down. It is such a messy tree," she said. She said she had never gardened before moving to Spearfish and was inspired by her neighbors, who were impeccable about their lawn care. She made her gardening plan one step at a time to turn her yard into the marvel that it is today.

"I think I started with perennials," she said. "And I think the same year I had a vegetable garden, too. We started small and it got bigger each year."

She said she is at a point where she is satisfied with the foliage in her yard and does not plan any more expansion. She said her husband teases her about his planting grass seed one minute and her digging it up the next. Even with several large garden areas that section her yard, it still takes her about two hours to mow the remaining grass-only areas.

She said she prefers greenery over flowers, but quickly added that she likes flowers, too - especially perennials. She said she remembers growing up in Japan that her father grew beautiful flowers, but at that time, she was not interested in learning about his techniques.

She likes evergreens, especially in the winter under a snow cover. "It is just beautiful. I just love that," she said.

She has several evergreens planted around her property and house, mixed with colorful ornamentals and decorative bird items-rustic feeders, houses and baths. Her yard is a refuge for other wildlife, too, including deer who love to munch on her hosta plants from time to time.

A row of tall lilac bushes along the side of her yard joins a line of tall pine trees in the front to provide absolute privacy for the patio. It is an attractive retreat, but Lerew admits it mostly goes unused because when she is outside, she always manages to find work that needs to be done.

She has a large homemade compost bin in the back of her garden shed, where she hangs packs of young plants she started from seed. There is a wide variety of plants and flowers growing throughout the yard.

Giant, healthy ferns nearly cover one side of her garden shed. A trumpet vine meanders along the garage, and a bleeding heart climbs a pole holding a bird house.

She planted a wild grapevine to grow over the roof of a small porch on the west side of her home to provide shade. More grapes grow up a wooden arbor elsewhere on the property.

Sally Seward of Spearfish said she is not a gardener, but she knows design and beauty, and Lerew's garden has both.

"It is so well laid out. All the details are so intricate," Seward said. "You could spend hours looking at her garden and see something different every time." She said Lerew's yard is beautiful all year long.

"It's a beautiful corner. Perfection is the only word I can think of," she said.

Lerew also has several raised beds in her vegetable garden for lettuce, tomatoes, squash, eggplant, peppers, beans, kohlrabi, strawberries and raspberries.

"I also raise Japanese cucumber. They are so good. There is not much seed, and the skin is so tender so you don't have to peel," she said. "Fresh vegetables are the best. I just love them."

She said she cans and freezes whatever she does not eat or give away. She also makes jams and dries the lavender that grows in a corner of her yard.

She has a separate herb garden where she grows a plethora of herbs, including tarragon, oregano, thyme, creeping thyme, garlic chives, and some she said she can't even pronounce. She prefers to cook with herbs fresh from the garden, but she also dries some for winter use. She blends her own Italian seasoning that she uses in stews, spaghetti and on pizza. "It's so much better than what you buy in the store."

The most challenging vegetable for this accomplished gardener is okra.

"I try it every year, but I cannot. I just love it, but it does not grow for me," she said.

She can't blame it on the climate, because she has a friend in New Underwood who grows beautiful okra every year.

"So must be I am doing something wrong," she said.

Lerew said she is very busy in the fall with harvesting, canning, drying and freezing her crops.

"Sometimes I cannot wait until the first frost so I don't have to work in the garden any more," she said. But come springtime, she admits she cannot wait to get outside and start the cycle all over again.

She said sometimes people out for a stroll in her neighborhood will stop to tell her she has a beautiful garden. Some even ask for advice, and her advice is pretty straightforward.

"You have to like working outside," she said.