Native Texan, drought-resistant landscape design
I am in the process of planning for new landscaping in front of my 1960s ranch in Dallas, TX. It is not in the budget right now to hire a landscape designer so we are doing planning, purchasing, and planting. I want to go with drought-resistant, native plants only (think sage, high grasses etc) but am unsure how to execute given that most yards around where I live do the typical floral landscape. I also tend to stick to shubbery and the Southwest feel (gravel etc.) even though I am fully aware Dallas is not in those parameters. I would love help from anyone who has attempted this look. Below is a picture of the front of the house. Note: There is a giant (but trimmed) magnolia tree on the right). The front door has been changed out for a midcentury 4-panel door and the post will be covered and stained to match the door.
Comments (11)
PROYardvaark
6 years agoRelated Discussions
drought resistant ground cover? Pictures
Comments (17)I'm not a landscape architect or a landscaper --- just a homeowner/gardener ---- but those photos scare me too. Kind of reminds me of the dropped backyard in my first house. All the land slopes down to your windows and the open garage. I don't know what kind of underground drainage system you have, but it does look like the front lawn is higher than the back lawn. That's worrisome because it could mean the lowest part of your property is where the house was placed. And the fact that the water level of the pond is higher than the basement windows is another red flag. I'm guessing that the drainage from your downspouts and any runoff goes into those drains outside the windows? If that were my house, I would not landscape on those slopes. Anything you plant there will need to be watered, which would only cause more water to flow down the hills. I agree that some kind of hardscape work is needed instead. Is it possible to have a walled patio area in front of the windows and the open garage? Believe me when I tell you this --- water table levels can change in a neighborhood and builders can do some crazy things! In my old neighborhood, a builder put up a house in on a wet lot that was below the road level. There was a trickling steam that ran across the lot and down to a river. We watched as the basement floor was poured on the earth and the foundation walls were cemented sraight UP from the ground. Then the builder mapped out the septic field by marking about 10/12 feet up on the trunks of trees! (no lie) He hauled in 'dirt' (lots of sand) to raise up the ground to the level of the road. Granted, this was 30 years ago in a small town, but geez! We often wondered when those streams would decide to percolate up into the basement. Water can do some crazy things. Molie...See MoreLooking for info on drought resistant plants
Comments (14)The Florida Native Plant Society has lists of plants by county that includes drought tolerance and provides links to pages with more info and images. http://www.fnps.org/pages/plants/plants_by_county.php?county=PINELLAS&sort=dryt There are two nursuries in Pinellas that specialize in natives. Twigs and Leaves in St Pete (site is lame) http://www.twigsnleaves.com/ Wilcox Nursery in Largo/Bellair http://www.wilcoxnursery.com/revHome.html (Includes a nice list of plants to give you an idea of what is *potentialy* available.) I highly recommend Pineland Lantana, Blanket Flower, and Tropical Sage....See MoreLandscape designers native planting suggestion - thoughts?
Comments (5)To paraphrase what they used to sing on a kid's show, some of these things are not like the others... your designer's plants don't go together well. Some of the suggested selections want a lot of moisture and some want much dryer conditions. Unless it's a large area that goes from a high dry spot to a low moist one, some part of that list is gonna suffer. Looking at that list, the evening primrose and whorled milkweed like near-xeric (dry) conditions, while the coneflowers, verbena (not sure this is hardy in your area, actually) and rudbeckia like mesic ("normal"), and the ninebark and willow need steady moisture to prosper. Asclepias incarnata (Swamp Milkweed), which was suggested above, likes mesic to moist conditions, and err on the moist side for best results. Assuming IG stands for Ilex glabra, it prefers a mesic to moist situation, and in your area would also appreciate shelter from cold northwest winter winds. Cedar is adaptable to everything except wet feet, and there are some cool cultivars available of both J. virginiana (eastern red cedar) and J. scopulorum (rocky mountain cedar). No telling about the oak, as you need to know the species to know what conditions are appropriate. Black gum's a good choice unless the site is quite dry. That's a dioecious species, so if you get a female and there's a boy gum around to pollinate, you'll have a messy berry drop in the summer, if that's a consideration. Amsonia is an awesome genus and very adaptable -- A. hubrichtii is quite beautiful in and out of bloom. Joe Pye Weed wants moisture, as does Panicum. Sporobolis wants dryer. Liatris spicata prefers moisture, but there are plenty of liatris species to choose from that will like whatever you've got. Many mesic plants are fairly drought hardy when established, so a dry-ish site might not kill them once they've been in the ground a year or two with good culture and no stress. But that just means they survive a drought, not that they look good and sail through untouched. Coneflowers are a good example. They usually survive dry spells, but they often look pretty wretched. It's sort of a judgment call on whether they're appropriate for you, depending on how pretty you want the garden to look like in the bad times. No offense, but I don't think the designer is very up on his/her natives. I'd say you'd probably lose 30-40% of those original suggested plants over time, depending on whether your situation is dryer or moister. I've found that good way to figure this out, if the site is relatively undeveloped, is to take a look at whatever's growing there now (even weeds), ID it, then look up its preferred habitat relative to moisture availability. That'll help you figure out what will thrive there without irrigation or other artificial life support. Then you can develop a plant list that suits the site. BTW, I assume "swan" coneflower is 'White Swan', an older white selection of E. purpurea. There are better newer white cultivars now, such as 'Primadonna White', which for me has performed better and is a prettier garden subject to my eye....See MoreTurf reduction to drought tolerant and native plants - Sacramento
Comments (9)Thanks everyone for your comments. I am adding a few more pictures here to show the rest of the property from different angles. The picture with the large palm tree shows the edge of my lawn, my driveway and what the rest of the block looks like - here in Fair Oaks we don't have sidewalks, and many of the properties have lawns going straight down to the street. Also, there is no place to park on the street, so, as much as I would like a path leading to the house from the street as enmarene suggested, it would never be used. The second picture shows the edge of the lawn that I'm replacing on the and the big swath of concrete driveway adjacent to the lawn. If anything, I'd like to de-emphasize the driveway by planting a lovely garden. I'm not sure what the semi-circle Yardvaark suggested, was it a driveway? I do like the idea, but I have too much driveway. I do like Yardvaark's drawing, however and would like to incorporate some of the ideas indicated. The trees look great. right The third picture (above) shows the meager pathway from the driveway to the front porch/front door. I would like to enhance that path in some way, as well as make the front door pop more, but that might just be a matter that will be taken care of next spring when we paint the exterior. Thanks again everyone....See More
PKponder TX Z7B
6 years agoThe Fort Worth Botanical garden has a cactus garden with a decomposed granite base.You might get some ideas from looking there.
http://www.fwbg.org/gardens/#/cactus-garden/
We are near your area and have converted a part of the yard that is difficult to water with natives and call it the dry garden. We have almost no sun so some of our choices like Turks Cap wouldn't look their best in full sun without supplemental water. We use bulk cedar mulch, not DG. There are many agave and yucca varieties as well as my favorite grasses (Little Bluestem, Inland Sea Oats and Mexican Feather Grass) that can survive with natural rainfall and thrive with water every 2-3 weeks in the hottest part of the summer.
Allie Hayes thanked PKponder TX Z7B
marshaaa (5b CO, Castle Rock)
6 years agoAllie, I second Yardvaark's observation that rock mulch is expensive. It is also backbreaking to spread, difficult to plant in, and unforgiving. Once it's there, you are pretty much stuck with it. Having said all of that, I really like rock mulch and have a lot of it. It's very common here in Colorado and, used properly, can be stunning. A couple of recommendations I would like to make, however. One, most plants, even those considered xeric / drought resistant, appreciate organic mulch. That doesn't mean they won't do well with rock mulch, too, but organic mulch (i.e., shredded hardwood) will not hurt them. Two, organic mulch will be less expensive and much easier to spread yourself. Once you have plants in place and have the look you like (and as the budget allows) you can rake up the mulch, move it to the back yard, and order rock mulch if you decide you still need it to get the look you want. Three, a combination of organic mulched areas and rock mulched areas can be very attractive. I've attached a few examples, as well as a very preliminary plan for your yard, given the limited photo.
The easiest way to begin is to invest in a backpack sprayer and spray your lawn with glyphosate (Roundup generic). If you have a Tractor Supply or other such store in your area, you can buy the generic much cheaper than buying Roundup. You will probably need to do that 2-3 times over a 3-4 week period. There is no need to remove the dead grass before planting.
With the look you're going for, it really isn't absolutely necessary to have your foundation planting be separate from those plantings in the rest of the yard, although it would look better to do so. If you go that route, shape that area first (using garden hoses, flags, whatever).
PKponder gave you some good plant suggestions. You might also enjoy some of these garden blogs: http://www.penick.net/digging/?page_id=6107
Allie Hayes
6 years ago
Denita
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoLook into Perennial Peanut. It is a drought tolerant ground cover for zones 8 to 11 that is no mowing (once a year or two is common here), little to no water (rainwater works) and looks a little like grass. It is perfect for areas that are sunny. Check your local resources to see if it works there as well as it works in my area (zone 10). Doesn't flower in shade and only has a limited flowering time anyway. The rest of the time it looks and feels like grass.
PROBeth H. :
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoim in SoCal and did a xeriscape on our rental. We used DG (decomposed granite) as the base and native succulents. The plants were taken from the neighborhood and just stuck in the ground! This was 2 yrs ago and the plants have grown and done well. Off in the flower beds are black mulch and iceberg roses. they do well in the heat and are prolific growers.
the before pic of this house was way worse than yours! it was a bank owned property.
under the windows you could do a curved flower bed w/the mulch. plant the rose bushes there. out in the middle of the yard, you could do the xeriscape. make sure you bring in rocks and boulders and flagstones, for variation. and use different height plants, cactus, succulents. Firestick is a good one. use lavender, flax, aloe, agave,,all would do well in Dallas.
holleygarden Zone 8, East Texas
6 years ago
ocotillaks
6 years ago
Tatiana [USDA 6]
6 years ago- PRO
Yardvaark
6 years agolast modified: 6 years agoI was thinking you could do something more conventional at the foundation planting area and then divide the remainder of the yard into zones. There could be a diminished irrigated grass portion, and an outlying 'desert' portion. (I cannot draw the kinds of plants for that zone so use your imagination.) The zones could expand or shrink to suit your preferences. Near the house, the windows are so low, I cannot see many, if any, conventional shrubs fitting without being a major pain insofar as trimming is concerned. Something like liriope -- which only needs to be cut down once per year in the early spring, would be large enough to serve as a shrub. Asiatic Jasmine, if it grows there would be a nice groundcover for the area below the tree and filling in other areas.
I would still be careful about doing too many different, one-of-a-kind things in a desert zone. The effect of it can look a bit junky.
I know peanut grows in many coastal states but how far inland I don't know. It's a great groundcover. I have it instead of turf and it might work for you in that regard. For me, in Florida, it blooms all the warm season -- April or May into October. If it freezes it browns but still doesn't look bad. Here, the freezes usually come at the end of winter so it's not long before it's green again.
gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)