Walter Clemons is passionate about his yard. He's won Best Yard in Hampton, Virginia, by cultivating a weed-free, perfectly clipped lawn, as well as interesting manicured shrubs. He spends at least half a day, twice a week caring for his lawn.

NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — When Walter Clemons was a high school student in St. Petersburg, Fla., he did something he considers smart, some 50 years later.

He learned about landscaping during an agriculture class he took as an elective course.

“It was one of the best things I could have done,” says Clemons, now retired from military and civil service careers, 21 years each, respectively.

As a homeowner over the years, that landscaping know-how has helped him nurture lush green lawns, including his pride-and-joy yard in Hampton, Va.

“He works long and hard in his yard,” says neighbor Marla Brown before taking off in her car.

“His yard looks like this every year — it’s beautiful.”

Compliments like that make Clemons beam ear to ear because he spends half a day, at least twice a week, mowing and manicuring his cool-season fescue grass. He also puts hours into grooming 10 mature Bennett compact hollies into two-tier sculpted shapes he’s perfected over the years.

“They remind me of the magnificent blue plants in the movie ‘Avatar’ that disappeared when they were touched,” he says.

When Clemons and wife Daisy moved into the house they built in the Benjamin Terrace neighborhood in 1996, he had all the trees removed so he could plant the trees he wanted and have sun and no root competition for the open lawn he likes.

After grading topsoil to get a slight slope from the house to the street, Clemons amended the soil with 2-3 inches of Nutrigreen compost. He then raked in Kentucky 31 and Pennington grass seeds, followed by Titan grass seed.

The result is a lush, thick lawn with no weeds.

To keep the lawn looking its best year in, year out, Clemons waters with a 110-foot-deep well that’s connected to an irrigation system. Each spring, he aerates and reseeds early, usually the first of March. He fertilizes four times a year, putting down heavy-nitrogen applications in spring and summer and low-nitrogen applications in the fall with a high concentration of potash and potassium to stimulate root growth.

“Titan seems to be tough, takes drought better and requires less water,” he says.

Clemons says he never has to remove thatch, a buildup of living and dead stems, leaves and roots, because he bags his grass.

The green of his grass against the cream color on his house is accented with Knock Out roses and masses of pansies. Clemons manages to keep his pansies blooming 12 months a year, even during summer when they are supposed to melt and die because he gives them limited water.

Now that the lawn and his burgundy-red crape myrtles — he’s a Redskins fan — have matured, he has his lawn-care routine down pat: he edges, blows and mows to keep everything picture perfect.

“Each yard is different,” he says.

“What works for me may not work next door.

“I believe in ‘keep it simple,’ and I like it just the way it is.”