Driving around north Austin last week, I spotted quite a few nontraditional front yards, where the owners had traded in the typical expanse of St. Augustine or Bermuda for a smaller plot of grass, a sedge lawn, or a garden instead of lawn. No matter the style, every one expressed the individuality of the homeowner, which is something that a traditional lawn can never do.

Pictured above is a modern garden with a reduced lawn that occupies only about one-fourth of the yard. Elevated with a rusted-steel edge, this plush throw-rug of grass (what kind, I wonder?) is set off like a work of art. It also acts as negative space and a welcome block of color.

Taking up nearly half the space is a gravel parking strip/entry path, with offset, rectangular slabs of concrete leading visitors to the elevated lawn. I find it a little odd to direct visitors to slog across a lawn because one’s feet always get wet or heels sink into the soil; plus, if you have many visitors, they’d wear out the grass in the middle. I like a solid-surface path, myself. But it’s certainly an interesting approach, and I do enjoy seeing something different.

A low, horizontal-board fence (dubbed a hipster fence by my friend David Cristiani) on either side of the lawn separates the public space from the private. Behind it on the left, you can just spot a circular gravel patio encircling a tree. On the right, a rectangular space paved in Texas Black gravel can be seen in the 2nd photo above.

A quieter, more meditative design has just been installed in the front yard of one of my neighbors. Under a half-dozen live oaks, which shaded out the former St. Augustine lawn (the drought turned the last blades to dust), newly planted plugs of Texas sedge will eventually fill in to create a tufty “lawn.” Large boulders set in gravel provide a vaguely Asian-style focal point. On the left (not visible), a few shade-tolerant palms offer contrasting height and texture.

Infill construction a few years ago created this colorful contemporary-storybook house—or at least that’s how I think of it. The tiny front yard could easily have been sodded and forgotten about, but instead the owner created a xeric cottage-style garden with an exuberance of plants and color.

Short pillars of river stone capped with Craftsman-style lights clearly mark the entry and function much the way an arbor would—defining public vs. private space, and offering an invitation for visitors. They also, of course, illuminate the front walk at night.

The walk itself is composed of trios of textured concrete pavers set in Texas Black gravel. It curves invitingly through the garden to the front door.

Looking to the right, a side path traverses the front of the house, leading through the garden to the side fence.

This colorful garden just begs you to explore it—or at least admire it from the sidewalk. Could a standard lawn do that?

All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

It seems kind of stay-at-home-ish to admit that my absolute favorite garden at Denver Botanic Garden, which I visited earlier this month, is the one that looks almost like it could be in central Texas—with the addition of conifers and an intensity of color that we rarely achieve in the more-humid low country. But it was. The Water-Smart Garden, located along a glass house that we didn’t have time to visit, photographed in a hurry as my family tugged at me to leave, complaining of empty bellies (it was lunchtime), is a long, narrow strip of drought-tolerant plants arranged with an eye for contrasting textures, color, and grassy movement.

The long strip is gently mounded, so the plants “flow” down the slope toward the viewer.

Agave and lavender do a cool-blue color echo, with the dark-green pine in there for contrast.

A very blue Eryngium—love!

A wider view. Berming the bed adds a lot to the beauty and enjoyment of this garden—you can see everything easily.

Other garden areas contained beautiful plants too, of course.

These grasses, yuccas, and flowering perennials were in a garden near the entry, I believe.

Red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) was in full bloom.

An open, patio-style garden called Wildflower Treasures (I think) contained flowering groundcovers, hypertufa troughs, and a geometric bamboo sculpture, backed by beautiful Colorado evergreens.

This hot combo was labeled as Californian firecracker plant (Dichelostemma ida maia) and sulphur-flower buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum).

Close-up of the buckwheat

Another look at the geometric bamboo sculpture, which is anchored in a pond.

These boat-like bamboo sculptures were floating in another pond. They were my favorites.

Pretty blue pots with cactus, aloes, and other assorted tender plants

‘Zwartkop’ aeonium, I think, backed by chartreuse sweet potato vine

There was even a kitchen garden…

…with evidence of a gardener recently at work.

I hope you enjoyed my posts about Denver Botanic Garden all this week. DBG is packed with beautiful gardens, and our 4-hour visit was not sufficient to see everything. I’ll definitely have to plan a return visit.

For a look back at my post about DBG’s Plains Garden, Rock Alpine Garden & Dryland Mesa, click here. You’ll find additional links at the end of each post.

All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Before vacationing in Rocky Mountain National Park earlier this month, we stopped in Denver to visit the Denver Botanic Gardens, which I’d long wanted to see. Though the day grew hot, reaching 100 degrees F, the gardens did not disappoint, glowing with high-country color against a bright-blue sky and accented with monumental bamboo sculptures like the one flowing down a slope in this image.

Although Denver Botanic Garden is compact, sandwiched as it is amid downtown streets, it’s divided into numerous and varied types of gardens—too many to show in one post. Since today is Bloom Day, I’ll start with images of flowering, xeric perennials from the Birds & Bees Walk and the O’Fallon Perennial Walk—like these monarda, goldenrod, and lavender visited by a swallowtail butterfly.

Lavender and goldenrod

A southwestern look: lavender flowering against an adobe-style wall

Goldenrod

A grape arbor offers respite from the sun, while perennials flower with abandon along the fence rails.

A drier but no less beautiful garden greets you near the entrance, in the long perennial borders flanking a main walkway, hedged with green walls on either side.

We arrived right at opening, 9 am, but you can see that even then the sun was high and intensely bright, making photography a challenge. A number of eager visitors and photographers, like us, were there right as the doors opened.

Eryngium

The bees loved these ghostly, prickly flowers.

Garlic seedheads stood like comical elfin hats.

Hollyhocks

Candy-colored yarrow

I don’t know this plant but admired its burgundy leaves and yellow flowers. Update: Fairegarden Frances thinks it’s Lysimachia ciliata.

Verbascum

As we left the perennial walk we entered a sunny plaza rustling with ornamental grasses.

A long, rill-like waterway, with vertical fountains spouting up at times, was bordered by several varieties of ornamental grasses, and these pale-yellow hollyhocks.

In a line down the middle of the waterway stood blue pots of bamboo muhly grass.

Beautiful texture and color

A closer look

Swirling grasses in gold and blue played against hot-colored perennials.

Bright, bright sun, but something caught my eye over here by this bench.

Pretty persicaria, much taller than any I’ve ever seen in Austin, but that’s not what I noticed.

It’s this simple combination of Mexican feathergrass (Nassella tenuissima) and purple sage (Salvia offinalis purpurea), which I have in my own garden at home. Hey, it looks even prettier with the burgundy leaves of barberry behind it. We could also use loropetalum at home.

And I leave you with a last glimpse of sweet hollyhocks. I’ll have more tomorrow from Denver Botanic Garden—DBG’s Grasses & Cholla for Foliage Follow-Up—and for several posts to come. Please click the links for more posts about my visit to the gardens.

For more Bloom Day posts from around the world, visit May Dreams Gardens.

All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.