Mystic — More than 40 years ago, James Short started gardening as a way of "brightening up" the outside of "the fixer-upper" that he and his wife had just acquired near the intersection of routes 27 and 1.

Now, thousands of spadefuls of dirt, pulled weeds and deadheaded blooms later, Short is the recipient of the Mystic Garden Club's Beautification Award, an annual honor typically bestowed on a business.

"Everyone in the club agreed, this is just such a public place, every tourist sees it, and everyone who drives by admires the garden," said Judy Salerno, garden club president and one of the members who visited Short earlier this summer, before his garden was in full bloom, to bestow the award.

"It is an honor. I'm very pleased," said Short, as he showed the club members around his yard.

"Since I've been doing this civic award, it's always gone to a business, but this time, we decided to give it to an individual who provides beauty for the community," said Amy Bush, chair of the club's Civic/Landscape Design committee.

Member Barbara Tacy suggested Short's efforts be recognized.

"He's there year in and year out," Tacy said. "I have driven by that place all summer for so many years and just enjoyed it so. So last fall I thought, 'Why not give the beautification award to that gardener since so many tourists and residents get to enjoy his garden?' And the club voted yes."

Short, 71, a native of Ohio, left the Navy in 1972 and bought the home at 8 Dennison Ave. in 1974. Today, he is semi-retired from Millstone Power Station, where he worked as a mechanical supervisor for 28 years.

From the get-go, when James and Patricia Short bought the house, they knew it was going to require a lot of work. But as Short began tackling inside projects, he decided flowers outdoors would make the property more attractive.

Little by little, Short has extended his limited garden space, and has some of his more showy blooms in front and on the side of his home, where there is more sun exposure.

While he grows a variety of flowers, it is his dahlias that get most of the attention. When traffic slows and backs up at the nearby light at the intersection, passersby shout out words of appreciation.

"A lot of people holler out, 'Hey, that looks awful nice,'" he said.

Short is methodical about his dahlias, plotting a planting plan on an Excel spreadsheet and arranging plants by color and size of the bloom. There are six stakes for every two plants — insurance against heavy winds or damaging rain — and endless lines of jute artfully arranged to hold the stems in place.

"Dahlias take a lot of work ... but you plant them in May and they will bloom until a frost or freeze and they don't slow down," he said.

His advice to anyone considering planting dahlias, which have to be dug up in the fall and stored over the winter, is to start small.

"Don't go out and get a couple dozen of the things and get all overwhelmed," he said. "Start small and decide if you got the time to do what needs to be done, then if it works out, you can expand from there."

Short is growing about 35 dahlias this year, and said so far, it is not a stellar season.

"My dahlias are the worst in three or four years. I think the award was a curse on me," he joked.

But to the uninitiated, the gardens are delightful.  

The dahlias have names such as Orange Julius, Korb Summer Gala, Spartacus and Otto's Thrill. There are splashes of bright color everywhere one turns, and the show stopper is the Red Emperor Mandevilla Vine, which is set off by the vanilla marigold and volunteer portulaca beneath it. 

Short said he spends a few hours a day working in his garden and finds it a great way to relax.

"Come home strung out and pull weeds for 30 minutes and it's a stress reliever," he said. 

Growing up in southern Ohio, Short was the oldest of seven siblings and said his father had a massive vegetable garden, but his mother had "to holler" to get her husband to plant a few flowers. But his paternal grandfather did grow roses and dahlias, and those gardens piqued Short's interest.

Today, Short shares what he knows about his plants with those who ask, and occasionally gets a visitor like the 14-year-old who stopped to admire the flowers and then asked, "Reckon you can cut two or three for me?"

"Turns out he was in trouble with his girlfriend," said Short, who prefers not to cut his flowers, but did snip a few blooms for the teen.

Another time he found an artist had set up an easel and was painting his flowers, and another time, inadvertently scared off a photographer who was photographing his garden when he went out to ask about the camera and technique he was using.

"I didn't mind he was there. I just wanted to ask him what he was doing, but he ran off," Short said.

Seemingly everyone is pleased by Short's gardens except his wife, Patricia, who said she would like to see him finish some of the improvements started 40 years ago.

"I'd rather see him fix the house," she quipped, when asked about his honor from the garden club.

Short smiled and reached down to pull on a weed.

a.baldelli@theday.com

Twitter: @annbaldelli