My friend Diana Kirby moved across town 6 years ago and has been making her new garden in very different conditions from her old one. Before, she had a large, level, suburban yard in southwest Austin, where she made extensive gardens in sun and shade. She often wished for elevation changes that she could play with, but she cleverly created such interest by building up large mounded beds with rock, and she added height with strategically placed trees, tall beaked yuccas, and arbors.

When she left that house behind, she swapped former ranchland for the hilly, shallow-soil terrain of Austin’s close-in Tarrytown neighborhood. Her dream of elevation changes came true — in a big way! Now her challenges are slowing runoff, easing steep paths with walls and small patios, and finding pockets of soil and sun that allow her to have some flowers.

Her home perches on a steep, shady corner lot mostly filled with live oaks, red oaks, and a dense groundcover of Asian jasmine. Diana has carved out gardens along a curving walk from the lower street up to the front door, and added a little patio as a resting spot along the way. It’s a good spot for morning coffee.

Sitting here, you’re surrounded by the garden and sheltered by a rusty-leaved ‘Bloodgood’ Japanese maple. Behind it, a hilly swath of Asian jasmine looks like a green hedge from this angle. The jasmine isn’t what Diana would have chosen, but it’s here and it’s practical for the steep terrain. “I’ve carved out areas that are easier to garden in,” she says.

Dramatic ‘Ebb Tide’ rose flowers in a pocket of sun along the path.

‘Blue Boy’ yuccas, their shaggy-headed leaves tinged with lavender, harmonize with purple sweet potato vine, which Diana uses as a heat-loving groundcover.

Orange daylilies pop against yellow-striped Spanish dagger (Yucca gloriosa ‘Variegata’).

Gopher plant trails over small limestone boulders that hold soil and slow runoff, backed by sweet potato vine and ‘Blue Boy’ yucca.

This shot gives a better sense of the steepness of the property. Oaks make a light-filtering parasol over the garden. Gray stucco and rusty steel walls support patios, garden beds, and — at the top — the driveway. Diana is living on the edge with this garden!

Young Japanese maples — this one is ‘Tamukeyama’ — are growing into graceful understory trees, alongside pittosporum (winter-sheltered by the masonry wall), ‘Everillo’ sedge (see pic above this one), and Japanese aralia.

Native heartleaf skullcap is backed by purple Persian shield in steel planter boxes by the front porch.

Near the top of the garden, a large blue pot makes a bubbling fountain that offers birds a drink and draws the eye as a focal point. It’s fun to see this new garden taking shape at Diana’s house — so different from her old one but still distinctively hers.

Thanks for the garden visit, Diana!

I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post to leave one. If you’re reading in an email, click here to visit Digging and find the comment box at the end of each post. And hey, did someone forward this email to you, and you want to subscribe? Click here to get Digging delivered directly to your inbox!

__________________________

Digging Deeper

My new book, Gardens of Texas: Visions of Resilience from the Lone Star State, is available for pre-order at Amazon and other online book sellers. It’ll be released on October 14th, and while that’s several months away, pre-orders are tremendously helpful in getting my book noticed by readers and reviewers. Please consider pre-ordering if you’d like to read it this fall; more info here. Thank you for your support!

Come learn about gardening and design at Garden Spark! I organize in-person talks by inspiring designers, landscape architects, authors, and gardeners a few times a year in Austin. These are limited-attendance events that sell out quickly, so join the Garden Spark email list to be notified in advance; simply click this link and ask to be added. Read all about the Season 8 lineup here!

All material © 2025 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.