Drive-By Gardens: Waterwise front yard on Castle Hill

Cruising done the Castle Hill country of Old West Austin recently, I spotted this beauteous 1910 location with a sky-blue doorway and modern landscaping. I deed the brakes for a person look.

The location sits atop a beforehand gait terraced with Corten alloy and board-formed factual walls. A heavy hellstrip mulched with gravel contains a grassy planting of bulletproof reddish yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora), Mexican feathergrass (Nassella tenuissima), woolly stemodia (Stemodia lanata), and whale’s lingua agave (Agave ovatifolia).

That whale’s lingua agave is simply a stunner, and harmoniously acceptable disconnected with woolly stemodia groundcover. No cervid successful this neighborhood, truthful the reddish yuccas look gorgeous with arched wands of coral flowers. And what a view! An artfully pruned practice unrecorded oak frames the dome of the Texas Capitol.

Hummingbirds were darting from angiosperm to flower, stealing sips of nectar and chasing each different off. I emotion however the whale’s lingua agave echoes the brushed bluish of the beforehand door.

Floating steps marque a close crook astatine a alloy planter container dotted with tiny aureate tube cacti. Along the foundation, a alloy terraced furniture contains a frothy planting of sedge and palmetto — possibly metallic saw?

The sedge continues crossed the close broadside of the yard. No accepted tract astatine all, I think. The location faces southwest, which means the sedge receives beauteous overmuch a afloat time of sun. I’d emotion to cognize which assortment it is.

I deliberation this beforehand gait is precise good designed and appealing with a restrained palette of autochthonal and adapted plants. Plus the location itself is simply a Texas charmer. Bravo!

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