Waterwise Austin garden alight with grasses

This Sitio Design garden in SW Austin features low-maintenance grasses and waterwise plants like agave, prickly pear, and sotol.… Read More

The post Waterwise Austin garden alight with grasses appeared first on Digging.

Last November, landscape architect Curt Arnette and I visited another of his Sitio Design landscapes. Located in southwest Austin, this garden features low-maintenance grasses and waterwise plants like agave, prickly pear, and sotol.

Limestone boulders play a hefty role in the garden. Curt used them to elevate naturalistic planting beds…

…add separation between lawn and garden…

…and create a sense of enclosure. Notice how the curving line of stone seems to ripple out from the curve of the entry walk.

The boulders live harmoniously with prickly pear, woolly stemodia, and Lindheimer muhly — a “gardened up” version of exposed limestone and native plants in the wild.

Near the front door, I appreciated cotton-candy clouds of Gulf muhly in full bloom.

The rosy-pink inflorescence of Gulf muhly stands out against a gray-green backdrop of woolly stemodia, Wheeler’s sotol, and cenizo — all native to Texas.

Side view: zoysia lawn (“left long to mound,” Curt says), limestone, and entry garden

One of my favorite moments: woolly stemodia, Wheeler’s sotol, Gulf muhly, and skeleton-leaf goldeneye

Woolly stemodia waterfalls across rock, softening the scene.

A whale’s tongue agave perches amid Berkeley sedge on the other side of the front porch.

Beyond, a large raised bed built up with boulders extends the foundation garden into the lawn. This peninsula creates a sense of enclosure near the front door.

The rusty grasses in back are exuberant little bluestem.

Looking outward from the porch, your eye is led by a stepping-stone path to a large fire pit.

The fire pit patio, sited at the edge of a natural bluff, overlooks trees and the neighborhood below. Little bluestem grasses in fall color stand around like pregamers warming their hands.

Looking back toward the house, with a sunlit bluestem

Here you can see how the property falls away to the left of the front door, and how Curt built it up with boulders and plants to keep everything in scale.

Side view with woolly stemodia, spineless prickly pear, little bluestem, and Wheeler’s sotol

Gulf muhly showing off in fall bl