West Texas meets the Big Easy in the courtyard garden of Curt Arnette

May 04, 2015


Each time I visit the garden of landscape architect Curt Arnette in southwest Austin, I am absolutely agog over the front courtyard, which occupies a corner lot on a typical suburban street of nicely kept lawns and foundation shrubs. His garden stands out in the best way possible, with texture-rich plant combos, understated but finely crafted hardscaping, and strong “bones.”

While managing to work within the constraints of his HOA’s landscaping rules (he used hedges rather than the low wall he wanted for enclosing the garden, for example), Curt has created a dynamic wonderland of spiky yuccas, agaves, sotol, and dyckia around the perimeter of the garden, which opens at a friendly, gated entry to reveal a clean-lined, New Orleans-style courtyard shaded by live oaks.


Let’s take a tour, starting at curbside. All those spikes and spines just sing in the morning light, like the spherical heads of Yucca rostrata beyond the boxwood hedge.


In the foreground, where a mosaic path of Lueders limestone invites you in, a powder-blue ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (A. ovatifolia) echoes the color of a wrought-iron gate.


The view from the street. A hedge of ‘Wintergreen’ boxwood makes up the “walls” of the courtyard; a canopy of live oaks, the ceiling. A trio of ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agaves and smaller dyckias (‘Burgundy Ice’, I’d guess) add drama, architectural form, and evergreen color that contributes year-round beauty. Light-colored gravel ties in with the limestone and flows seamlessly from path to plantings.


Another view


The beautiful gate, one side ajar, says welcome.


Path detail. Notice the precisely aligned focal point, across the courtyard, of a pair of potted flax lilies.


A floral-carved stone anchors the vignette.


The steel-edged planting beds are laid out geometrically around two live oaks, with the courtyard paving providing negative space for the eye to rest among the lush plantings. A few potted plants, like this ligularia, sit on limestone plinths for extra height, elegance, and attention.


Curt had just put up the string lights a day or two before, opting to use metal posts to get the configuration he wanted, rather than stringing them from the trees. Curt does all such work himself, with an eye for exacting detail.


To give architectural interest to the house, Curt attached a metal trellis above the garage doors and planted a ‘Mermaid’ rose on it. This vigorous and thorny rose must require a lot of careful pruning to be kept in bounds, but it is beautiful. Below, in the space between the garage doors, a potted smoke tree was in full flower, its bronze foliage harmonizing with the tawny pink of the brick siding.


Evergreen fig ivy is neatly clipped to frame the entry porch, emphasizing the front door.


An Easter lily cactus (Echinopsis subdenudata) was in gorgeous flower by the potted smoke tree. Curt found it at Far South Wholesale Nursery, but I saw on FB today that Tillery Street Plant Co. is carrying it, for you retail buyers.


Let’s zoom out for a second to admire this thick-trunked Wheeler sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri), which Curt has pruned up. A strip of gravel runs alongside the driveway, making it easier to get in and out of the car.


The courtyard garden as viewed from the driveway.


Closer view


Entering here you pass a steel container planted with citrus and softening perennials. The limestone pavers lead your eye diagonally across the courtyard to the gated entry.


An espresso-stained bench with a French-blue cushion is tucked into a recess of hedging in front of a window, a “rug” of limestone at its feet.


A potted paddle plant (Kalanchoe thyrsiflora) sits atop a handsome bird-bath pedestal. Silver saw palmetto (Serenoa repens) brightens the shady bed behind it.


Exiting the courtyard and revisiting the perimeter beds, which give neighbors and passersby a beautiful view, I admired this tiered limestone curbing layered with bluebonnets (lower level), ‘Blue Elf’ aloes (middle), and irises (top). I’m guessing those irises have blue or purple flowers. A collection of smooth river stones adorns the top curb.


Curt taught me the value of proper pruning at my first garden (the one before Green Hall), when he was our across-the-street neighbor. He’s a very precise gardener, but one who isn’t afraid to take risks and experiment with plants. I like how he’s made a low hedge of bamboo muhly grass (Muhlenbergia dumosa) in the hell strip. It’s only about 18 inches tall and seems to take radical pruning very well! Perhaps you could even make a parterre of this normally billowy grass, if you were so inclined.


At the corner, the hell strip is filled with manfreda, which was in spectacular full bloom, each bottlebrush flower standing four feet tall on a long, fleshy stalk.


The sun-blasted outer corner bristles with Yucca australis, two Yucca rostrata, and a large dish planted with golden barrel cactus and bunny ears cactus (Opuntia microdasys).


A closer view


That concludes another exciting visit to Curt’s garden. Thank you, Curt, for sharing it with me again!

For a previous post about the Arnette garden, click here. Search for “Sitio Design” in the search bar to find my tours of gardens Curt has designed for others.

All material © 2006-2015 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

34 responses to “West Texas meets the Big Easy in the courtyard garden of Curt Arnette”

  1. Lisa at Greenbow says:

    This takes no lawn to a level of delight. Who would miss their lawn with all of these fabulous plants?

  2. Jean says:

    That bamboo muhly hedge just blew my mind! I so wish I could use that plant more. I keep buying it but it seems to be marginally hardy here, which surprises me. Anyway, I love that courtyard. Would love to see it in person.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      It doesn’t like extended hard freezes, Jean, and even in Austin we get those every few years, and bamboo muhly suffers. But for my money, it’s too good of a plant not to use anyway. Maybe Louisiana is just a bit too cold (or cold and wet) for this Arizona native. —Pam

  3. Wow! Love this garden. This is out front. No deer?

  4. Lori says:

    Oh man, I love love love his garden, and how he tranformed a typical suburban house into something that blends with his more contemporary-Mediterranean garden.

  5. Shirley says:

    This makes me want to rip out my front walk in favor of limestone slabs and carve a bench niche into the shrubs! It’s beautiful and well done, thanks for showing this. Love everything about it.

    The Manfreda looks great massed that way. All the plants and plant choices are great. Bamboo muhly hedge is an interesting concept, looks good and stays out of the way.

  6. Barbara says:

    we need more landscapes like this in drought ridden California. Totally gorgeous!

  7. TexasDeb says:

    I hear my clippers calling me…

    There are simply too many ideas to process in one visit from this wonderfully planned (and planted) union of function and beauty. What an inspiration this must be for the entire neighborhood (and if not, shame on them!!).

    I’m with Shirley – wanting to pull outdated paving systems and replace them with more pervious (and elegant!) solutions, and oh baby oh baby, that bench niche! Who doesn’t need and/or want one of those! Thanks to you and Mr. Arnette both for sharing!

  8. This garden just keeps getting better and better! I adore those different sized/shaped pavers and wish we had the time/money to have used them rather than our regular old square ones. Oh and that golden barrel cactus and bunny ears dish, I’m drooling!

  9. Kris P says:

    It’s a very peaceful garden, despite the plethora of spikey plants. All the textural variations give it the interest that other gardens use color to provide.

  10. Walt says:

    Fun to see how much has been edited out over the course of the three years between the first photos and these. Sad to see that the A. ‘Green Goblet’ is now gone (I assume it bloomed), but some of the other editing out is interesting as well; the front and drive areas have been very much simplified. Love the blue ovatifolia, cherry-cola dykia combination. And I see that the ice plant has given way to Aloe blue elf – poor plants, they have to put up with our desire to try new things in limited spaces. Sometimes I think gardeners kill as many plants as we put in the ground. Thank god for plant swaps. Love the dry-bys; thanks for doing this.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      I assumed that the ‘Green Goblet’ outgrew the space, Walt, seeing as it was next to the entryway and was pretty big three years ago. I too noticed how much Curt had simplified the exterior garden, at least along the path entry. Good changes, I think! —Pam

  11. What a lovely garden. So much attention to details. I the mix of materials and plants make if look very serene. And what fun plantings in the hell strip. Thanks for the tour!

  12. Cat says:

    Oh my gosh, you know what this garden does to me…He really teaches one how to think outside the suburban box. So inspiring!

  13. Denise says:

    One of the best regionally appropriate gardens I’ve ever seen — glad you visit often!

  14. Diana Studer says:

    been planting our own hell strip. But I can choose to have the pavement on the traffic side and my planting bed against the palisade fence.

    Are you obliged to have the planting strip up against the traffic?

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Different neighborhoods are developed in different ways, Diana. Sometimes there is no sidewalk, sometimes it’s adjacent to the street, and sometimes there’s a buffer (i.e., hell strip) between the street and sidewalk. —Pam

  15. ks says:

    This is beautiful , and it’s too bad that the HOA is so short-sighted, the low wall would have been lovely.How appealing the idea of a front garden courtyard-clever of you to have linked with NOLA, I can see that !

  16. What a wonderful space. I love how every inch is used with such purpose.

  17. Cindy says:

    Really nice. I don’t like the style of house with the garage right out front and even with the rest of the house. HOWEVER, I looked at the pictures for quite awhile without noticing the garage. What a great use of landscaping.

  18. Katina says:

    DAYUM, that’s a garden!

  19. rickii says:

    This kind of perfection makes me a little nervous, but I love it.

  20. The comments helped me figure out he’s pared some down. Quite amazing, and I always wonder what neighbors with whatever usual they have, anywhere, think of such good design expression? Especially that a peer cares about their own home and local place, with some embelishment.

    I still remember my visit there when you had a few of us meet you and your car-load there, after a WF Center tour…maybe 2012?

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Yes, it was spring 2012. You’ll find the link to my post about that visit at the bottom of this post. I can’t believe that was already 3 years ago. —Pam

  21. Nell says:

    What are the small blue wooden structures in the courtyard? (seen just beyond the show-stopping Ligularia)

    The view from the driveway is so peaceful and inviting. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. You all owe a lot to your wonderful live oaks!

  22. Gail says:

    What a marvelous garden~The well groomed planting on the garage and the house entrance is inspiring.

  23. hoov says:

    Really beautiful garden–I enjoyed the “tour” very much–thank you. The obviously meticulous and knowledgeable maintenance is a pleasure to see.

  24. Wendy Moore says:

    Well that settles it: I’m pulling up the weedy/grassy junk in the back yard and putting down gravel and pavers. Maybe not this year, but as soon as I possibly can!

    Gorgeous pictures, thanks so much for this posting!

  25. Lucy says:

    Gorgeous!!!!

  26. Seslie Higgins says:

    I love the horizontal trellis above the garage doors. Do you know where it was purchased? Thank you!