Linda Lehmusvirta of KLRU’s Central Texas Gardener has produced one of the best episodes ever in her interview with acclaimed landscape architect Christy Ten Eyck, who moved back to Austin in 2006 after 22 years living and designing gardens in Phoenix, Arizona.

Watch the episode here:
Central Texas Gardener, Feb. 2, 2013

Christy’s garden, which I’ve toured several times, offers much inspiration to central Texas home- owners, who may be wondering how to respond to ongoing drought and hotter summers. Coming from Phoenix, which gets only 7 inches of rain a year, Christy viewed Austin’s normal annual rainfall of 33 inches as a bonanza but still chose mostly native plants, which are in sync with our region’s drought cycles and long, hot summers.

She also removed a circular driveway, which paved over much of her front yard, and terraced her sloping lot to retain rainwater (which usually comes in drenching downpours that formerly ran off into the street) and make planting beds beneath the venerable live oaks that shade her garden.

Swaths of easy-care grasses (bamboo muhly, Mexican feathergrass, inland sea oats, sedges) help reduce maintenance.

Thanks to the inclusion of “before” pictures, the video gives me a much better idea of how Christy improved the design of the property as well. Take the time to pause the video on those “before” images and study them. You’ll be impressed by how seemingly small changes add up to a huge difference in the look of the space. For example, the framed, rectangular lawn in the walled back garden (the only lawn remaining on the property) was basically wall-to-wall carpet when she moved in. Adding a crisp border of steel edging and a pea-gravel frame brought the small lawn into focus as a design element and improved its looks enormously.

She also “freed” her trees from constricted, rock-edged planting beds. The massive live oak in the 2nd photo, for example, was previously encircled with a rock border and underplanted with a few iris. Christy liberated her trees by opening up space around them, whether with a gravel seating area, a large planting bed, or even lawn (as in the 3rd picture). The result is more natural looking and offers a better invitation to people as well, providing space to move through the garden and perhaps sit under a tree to enjoy the shade.

The full episode of this week’s CTG show (Christy’s segment is the first part) is worth watching as well because my friend David Cristiani, blogger at The Desert Edge and landscape architect in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is in the studio to talk with host Tom Spencer about appropriate design for our two distinct regions. As he says, Austin is not Tucson, so don’t be too quick to yank up all your drought-stressed plants and throw down a carpet of gravel. There’s a right way to use gravel, and it includes the welcoming (and heat-alleviating) “furniture,” as David says, of well-chosen plants.

All material © 2006-2013 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

While sorting through my filing cabinet this morning, I came across an old newsletter published by my former neighborhood association. Why in the world did I save this? I wondered. Flipping through the yellowing pages, I saw an article about reducing lawn that I forgot I’d ever written. Published in September 2005, before I started this blog or my garden-design business, and way before I had any inkling that I’d ever write a book about alternatives to the traditional lawn, the article made me realize that losing the lawn has been on my mind for a long time.

As Texas continues to suffer through drought, along with a significant portion of the country, the topic is just as relevant today as 7 years ago. I’m republishing it here in hopes that it may inspire a few people to convert their lawns into more sustainable and enjoyable landscapes.

Less Lawn, Less Water, More Beauty

When T.S. Eliot wrote that April is the cruelest month, he obviously never knew about August or September in our heat-stressed city. Summer in Austin means scorching heat, drought, and sky-high watering bills to keep those water-loving lawns lush and green. It’s time to retreat to the air-conditioned house and plan for fall gardening.

If a thirsty St. Augustine lawn dominates your yard, perhaps you’re thinking of ways to reduce your water bill next summer and give your landscape a more distinctive and Texas look. Too often we tend to live with the builder’s original mix of lawn, solitary shade tree, and overgrown line of evergreens along the front of the house. If you’re dreaming of something different, go for it! Carve out a section of your yard that receives blistering sun, and plant a sun-loving xeriscape garden like the one installed by our neighborhood’s beautification committee along Hancock Dr. on the east side of the bridge. Or take out the struggling lawn under your live oak, and grow a shady oasis of native woodland plants that will attract songbirds and hummingbirds. Using plants native to central Texas or adapted to our unique conditions will decrease your water bill, require less work than dainty species from other parts of the country, and connect your garden to the beauty of our region.

When my husband and I moved into the neighborhood five years ago, we inherited a yard devoid of shade, interest, or wildlife. I knew I wanted something pretty to look at, plants that could take the heat and drought, and a garden that would be attractive to birds, butterflies, and most important, my family and me.

The back yard, like the front, began as an expanse of water-guzzling, boring St. Augustine lawn. As you can see in this “before” photo, taken in the fall of 2000, your eye travels straight across the lawn to the back fence. Great for a game of soccer, maybe, but not what I wanted to look at every day. The markings indicate where we planned to remove grass in order to install a path and a playscape for the kids.

Three years later, in April 2004, this is how our back yard looked. No longer does the lawn dominate—in fact, the lawn is gone. In its place are a stone patio, a play area for the kids, a curvy path, and lots of native and adapted plants. While I sometimes miss having a grassy area for the kids to play on, I don’t miss the mowing, fertilizing, edging, or extra watering that a St. Augustine lawn requires. Plus, the variety of plants that grow in its place attract birds, butterflies, toads, and bees, and offers natural beauty.

I didn’t tackle these changes all at once. My husband and I installed the playscape first, removing half our lawn in the process. Little by little over the next couple of years, I dug out more garden beds until finally I just ran out of room. This kind of gardening is easier on the back and on the budget than doing it all at once. And not everyone wants to eliminate the lawn completely. Even reducing the size of your lawn by 25 percent can significantly alter the look and watering needs of your yard.

‘Indigo Spires’ salvia and Gulf Coast penstemon (Penstemon tenuis)

Of course, even a native garden needs to be watered, especially the first year. However, if you plant in the fall (October through December is best) and water regularly, your new plants will grow deep roots all fall and winter. By the following summer, they will be better prepared to survive the heat than specimens planted in the spring. Watering deeply (about 2 inches) every 10 to 14 days during the hot months will ensure your new garden’s health and encourage deep root growth.

Growing native plants is rewarding, and it connects you to the land you live on. Next summer, while your lawn crisps and your sprinkler runs, sketch some ideas on paper. Come fall—and it’s bound to come eventually—start digging and planting. By spring you’ll be enjoying your new native garden and eyeing the rest of your lawn with sketchpad in hand, wondering how much lawn you really need.

Originally published in The HPWBANA News, September 2005

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

You can’t help but feel curious about a gardening book titled as provocatively as this one. Why Grow That When You Can Grow This? 255 Extraordinary Alternatives to Everyday Problem Plants is the work of Andrew Keys, a blogger at Garden Smackdown, the creator of Garden Confidential, and, like me, a member of Garden Designers Roundtable. Andrew’s an experienced hort-head who knows his plants, so when I received a review copy of his book I was curious to see which plants he’d call out as problems and what he’d recommend instead. Even so, however, I doubted how useful his plant lists would be to gardeners like me in central Texas. Plant books geared to the whole country are rarely relevant, I’ve found, to those of us in Southwest regions with long, hot summers, frequent drought, and alkaline soils.

When I read the intro, however, I realized that the book is more than just a list of problem plants and proposed alternatives. Andrew’s main idea is to think about why we grow certain plants, specifically why we keep trying to grow a plant that doesn’t perform. He suggests that often it’s because we have a sentimental attachment or an emotional connection to that plant. Perhaps your mother grew it, or it proliferated in your former garden 1,000 miles away. Maybe you’ve admired it in a magazine, or it simply looks so darn tempting at the big-box store in the spring. Thinking about why you covet certain plants—for shape, for fragrance, for flower color—will, says Andrew, help you find better-suited substitutes that can fill that void. His book is meant to be a kick-starter of ideas, an invitation to think through why we try to grow a plant ill-suited to our conditions and to look for an alternative that can give us the emotional connection or physical characteristics we crave.

As I expected, many plants listed in the book are unknown in my region; the back cover, for instance, rattles off lilac, daphne, and pachysandra as typical problem plants—plants that aren’t even on the radar in Austin gardens. But a surprising number of Andrew’s “extraordinary alternatives” are suited to our climate. Here are a few of his suggestions:

Instead of blue spruce, which needs cooler mountain temps, try Arizona cypress, a conifer I happen to love for our region (pgs. 46-48).

Instead of jacaranda, which freezes here, try Texas redbud, rose of Sharon, or Texas mountain laurel—all three good choices for Austin (pgs. 68-71).

Instead of lavender, which often resents our summer humidity, try ‘Walker’s Low’ catmint and bluebeard, both dependable blue-flowered, ground-covering perennials (pgs. 254-256).

Instead of creeping juniper (does it ever look good in central Texas?), try prostrate Japanese plum yew (a plant I’ve admired at Peckerwood Garden in Hempstead, Texas) and creeping rosemary.

Also, as it happens, three of my photographs appear in Andrew’s book, and I can attest that they illustrate three plants that grow very well here too!

I think this book is best suited to experienced gardeners who need a nudge to try a less common plant, or who are tired of the typical garden standbys and crave something different. Newly transplanted gardeners—a Midwesterner recently relocated to the desert Southwest, for example—will also find it useful as they wrestle with the desire to plant beloved species from a far distant region and begin looking for regionally appropriate substitutes.

GIVEAWAY!
And now for the fun part! Just in time for Christmas, I’m giving away a copy of Why Grow That When You Can Grow This? to one lucky reader. All you have to do to be entered in the giveaway is leave a comment on this post by Sunday at 11:59 p.m. central time. I’ll randomly select the winner on Sunday night and announce his or her name on Monday the 17th. One entry per person, please, and you must have a shipping address in the continental U.S. Good luck!

Update 12/17/12: The randomly chosen winner is Ken Dreger. Congratulations, Ken!

Disclosure: Timber Press sent me a free review copy of this book. I read and reviewed it at my own discretion and without any compensation. This post, as with everything at Digging, is my own personal opinion.

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