Drive-By Gardens: Lushly spiky gardens of Tarrytown

August 13, 2020

Forgetting about the closure of city parks in Austin due to Covid-19, my daughter and I tried to visit Mayfield Park in west Austin a couple of weeks ago. Finding the gates locked, we decided to make the best of it and drove around tony Tarrytown neighborhood to admire pretty front-yard gardens. We found some cool ones!

Silver Fox

I call this one Silver Fox for its massive, silver-blue whale’s tongue agaves (A. ovatifolia) and shimmery groundcover of silver ponyfoot (Dichondra argentea).

Evergreen Texas mountain laurels screen the house from the road. I bet this scene is stunning in early spring when the trees drip with purple flowers. The grassy groundcover at left looks like bulbine, which can get tired in our hot summers and stop blooming. Same.

The agaves were planted well back from the path — and I mean well back — and now you see why. These babies get big! That’s another kind of agave in back, probably Agave americana. Only a few species are planted in this front garden, but they really make an impact.

Corten Dreams

This rectilinear contemporary home is set off by a curved retaining wall of corten steel embracing a large live oak. Shazam! I can’t imagine what it cost, but that rusty wall sure is beautiful contrasting with the rectangular lines and lighter surfaces of limestone and concrete. Sedge, not lawn, gives a soft, meadowy texture to the different elevations.

I believe the stairs are urbanite, aka recycled concrete. Eco-friendly, low-water plants, no lawn, and a beautifully composed mix of corten, concrete, limestone, and urbanite — this is the aspirational look of contemporary landscaping in Austin nowadays.

Shades of Green

I got a lemon-lime vibe from this house’s grassy shades of green. The composition looks like dwarf mondo grass, some type of Japanese sedge, and variegated flax lily in back. Very pretty.

Spiky Fringe

With its tall fence and hellstrip of spiky plants — Yucca rostrata, whale’s tongue agave, dyckia, and giant hesperaloe — you could be forgiven for thinking this home has posted a virtual do-not-disturb sign. But it actually looks too good to be that forbidding. Maybe they have little kids or pets, or maybe it’s deer fencing. At any rate, you can see through the fence to an inviting front-yard terrace — a perfect spot to watch the world go by.

I like it.

Mondrian Front Yard

Like a color-blocked Mondrian painting, this yard uses corten steel to terrace and segment the front lawn and planting beds. A line of ‘Green Goblet’ agaves at left and a trio of giant hesperaloes by the front door emphasize the horizontal plane. Whatever used to occupy the strip along the street — sedges by the look of it — has mostly gone to plant heaven. But it’s an interesting design that plays well with the architecture of the contemporary house.

Palm Lover

Someone loves bold, tropicalesque foliage! I couldn’t see the house, tucked away behind a wall and masses of palms and sago palms. But the streetside planting sets a mood. I wonder if the rest of the garden follows suit.

Grassy Contemporary

This straight-edged contemporary home recedes into the landscaping thanks to dark-gray paint, a sheltering tree, and a naturalistic garden of massed grasses. Inland sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium) thrive in the shade of the tree.

On the sunny side, spherical tuffets of miscanthus grass are starting to flower. Ornamental trees add green screening along the wall.

Silver Cascade

Hillsides are nearly impossible to mow and keep watered, so it makes sense to get rid of the grass. This homeowner opted for a cascade of silver ponyfoot studded by whale’s tongue agave and what looks like ‘Green Goblet’ agave. Red roses pop against the cool silvers. I think it would be prettier and more updated to paint the stucco wall and brick columns a unifying charcoal color, which would make the wall less in-your-face as you look up the hill to admire the plants.

Funny Farm

Amid all the contemporary tear-down/rebuilds, this original ranch stands out with brick-red siding and a South Austin-style display of plastic toy trucks, animal figurines, Star Wars toys, wind chimes, and eclectic potted plants. A small sign in the garden proclaims, “Welcome to the funny farm.” And why not? They’re having fun with their yard and reminding us all not to take ourselves too seriously.

Work of Art

Still, I can’t help but admire the elegant restraint of this painterly vignette: a tall, trunking blue nolina (I think), framed by a dark tree branch, with a green mat of shaggy zoysia or maybe Habiturf. Sometimes less is more.

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Digging Deeper

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All material © 2024 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

28 responses to “Drive-By Gardens: Lushly spiky gardens of Tarrytown”

  1. Blondi Utronki says:

    While looking at the photo of the red house with the toys and other stuff in the yard, you gotta wonder what the inside looks like.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Well, sure. I always wonder that about houses because it’s interesting to know how people decorate the spaces they live in. To be sure, I didn’t post the picture to shame them or anything. I found their yard art interesting and amusing. Hopefully that’s what they are aiming for! 🙂

  2. I love them all, excellent post Pam! It was hard to count (I wasn’t sure what was new and what was just a different angle), how many Agave ovatifolia would you say were in the first landscape?

    • Pam/Digging says:

      I see 5 big ones along the front walk and the left corner of the house, plus another 3 by the garage. Eight impressively massive whale’s tongue agaves! I hope they’re protecting them from the destructive agave weevil, which seeks out big agaves like these.

  3. Laura says:

    I love gardens that dare to be quirky and different, so my favorite is the funny farm although I also like the striking difference between the blue nolina and its background in the last photo.

  4. Jane says:

    Such a treat to see them all. Thank you for this post. I loved (almost) all of them, especially the elegant ones. But being routinely drawn to color and whimsy, I choose the funny farm as my favorite.

  5. peter schaar says:

    Wow, has Tarrytown changed! I don’t remember any of these, but I love them all. Your photography is stunning too. Thanks for bringing me up to date.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Tarrytown is, these days, a construction site full of bulldozers and contractors’ trucks. It seems a house is being torn down or remodeled on every block. That also means lots of people are investing in their landscaping, which makes for an interesting place to cruise around and look at people’s front yards.

  6. Kris P says:

    I like the simple, spare plantings of the first 3 landscapes you photographed a lot. When it’s scorching hot, they transmit a much-needed cool and tranquil vibe.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Cool and tranquil is needed right now, Kris. It’s been over 100 degrees for a week — up to 106 F on multiple days — with no end in sight. Blech.

  7. Christi Moseley says:

    Hey Pam,

    I frequently walk this neighborhood just to look at the landscapes, so this post was particularly fun for me. I was thrilled to see your last photo because I was so CURIOUS what that grass/ sedge/ shaggy whatever it is ground cover is in that last photo. I took pictures of it and puzzled about who I could ask. And you answered it for me! Thanks!!

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Well, I took a stab at it anyway. 🙂 It looks a little shady for Habiturf, actually, so I’m going to go with my first guess of zoysia until I hear otherwise.

  8. Lisa at Greenbow says:

    I like them all. I did get more than a chuckle out of the Funny Farm. Someone appears to be stuck in their childhood.I started wondering what I would collect from my childhood if I was to do so. I then remembered my collection of fairy garden items. Haven’t let that go yet. 😉

  9. Leslie says:

    “Shades of Green” and “Silver Fox” have my vote! Love this post which reminds us to stop and enjoy our own neighborhoods. Love to see you give the same treatment to the area around Pease Mansion. There are some beauties in there.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Thanks for the suggestion, Leslie. I’ve never done a Drive-By over there, although it’s quite pretty. I’ll add it to the list!

  10. What a terrific post, Pam! Clearly I’m not the only one who enjoyed seeing so many elegant and fun front gardens. Thanks for the virtual tour.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      My pleasure, Pat! It’s always fun to see what people are doing with their front yards, as long as it’s not just a big, boring lawn.

  11. Lori says:

    My favorite is the curved corten retaining wall/limestone/concrete/sedge combo. Truly stunning!

  12. Adam Davis says:

    You have some pretty amazing front gardens over where you live!

    The Agave ovatifolia in the first garden are huge.

    Over here in Scotland not many people do anything with their front gardens (or back gardens) and it is a real shame IMO.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      No? I’m surprised to hear that, Adam. Of course not every neighborhood here has front-yard gardens either. Tarrytown in particular is quite a wealthy neighborhood, and the designs reflect that. The key though is an acceptance of a no-lawn aesthetic by the community.

  13. Hans says:

    Fabulous curved corten steel wall! I also like the idea of recycled concrete steps – too bad you couldn’t sneak closer for a few detail shots. Makes me wonder if that material is available locally.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Good question, Hans. I suspect they recycled an old concrete path or patio torn up during the remodel. It’s “greener” to reuse such a material and cheaper than hauling it off.

  14. Doris says:

    All are very nice, but my favorite is the Funny Farm, I just can’t take my eyes of that picture.
    Thank you!