Drive-By Gardens: Desert-style garden in Wells Branch
In the Wells Branch neighborhood just north of Austin, on the way to my mom’s house, I regularly drive past this desert-style, no-lawn front garden. I’ve watched it evolve from a few tiny plants dotted across an expanse of decomposed granite to its current lusher look, softened here and there by pools of spreading groundcovers like silver ponyfoot and the red-flowering perennial along the sidewalk (some sort of salvia?).
While it’s still sparsely planted for central Texas, leaving lots of DG open to potential weed invasion (increasing maintenance), I like how the owners have clustered plants in loose triangles for a more natural effect, like the agaves and foxtail ferns. Clumps of winter-tawny Mexican feathergrass and pink-flowering Gulf muhly help soften all the rock.
Extremely drought-tolerant Wheeler sotol (Dasylirion wheeleri) is an unusual choice for the foundation, but planted in a raised, steel-edged bed it’s obviously getting good drainage. How do I know? Because otherwise it would have rotted. Wheeler sotol won’t play the fainting-couch game. A handsome prickly pear anchors the left side of the garden.
The house sits on a corner lot, and along the other street (not pictured) the owners are growing an ocotillo — with apparent success! Octotillo (Fouquieria splendens) is rare in subtropical Austin; we just get too much rain and humidity for this southwestern desert plant. These folks have had theirs for about three years, and I saw it in leaf a couple of months ago (ocotillo branches are bare much of the year, a desert survival adaptation), showing that even this year’s ultra-rainy spring and fall didn’t phase it.
This water-conserving garden likely needs no irrigation for most of the year, with perhaps a once- or twice-a-month soak in summer if it hasn’t rained. An open desert style is unusual for Austin, but I think it’s working for them.
All material © 2006-2015 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
It looks good…I love your drive by tours.
Drive-bys: an all-American way to see gardens, right? 😉 —Pam
I like this look. It is surprising that it is in Austin.
It’s reaching for a desert style that’s more commonly seen in West Texas. But it works here too if you can stay on top of the weeding. We get enough rainfall to entice weeds into colonizing open stretches of DG. —Pam
Speaking of weeds in the DG – what is the best way to address it? I have a fairly small area but the purslane et al drives me nuts. Usually I just plop down and pull those within a few square feet whenever it’s nice out and I feel like it. But it sometimes gets away from me.
Judy, try the old lady technique: boiling water. Completely benign and very effective.
Thanks for the suggestion.
Purslane is the worst! Judy, have you ever tried a flame-weeder? Tom Spencer of Central Texas Gardener once told me that was how he kept his DG patios weed free. —Pam
I’ll look into that. May be overkill for the size of my patio, but maybe not.
I usually like denser plantings but I do like this (which is not to say that I might not like it even more if there was more plant material). I think the fact that the house itself is green helps to balance all the gold/brown of the DG.
Nice observation, Kris. I like the “gardener’s green” of the house too. —Pam
So please explain…”fainting-couch game”…?
Ha — I was imagining a Victorian lady leaning on a fainting couch, the back of her hand pressed dramatically to her forehead. My point was that Wheeler sotol won’t show you it’s suffering, like some plants will. It’ll just up and die on you. 🙂 —Pam
Might the red-flowering perennial along the sidewalk be salvia spathacea?
Thanks for the guess, Carol. I’m not familiar with that plant, so I looked it up online. The pictures I’m seeing look a bit different — the bloom spike is not so pronounced on the plant in this garden. So my gut feeling is that it’s something else. And now I’m really wondering! —Pam
Pam, my first guess on the red flowering plant would be Texas betony, but hard to tell without a closeup. Mine always spreads like this one. Most salvias are taller.
Even zooming in on my photo, I can’t be sure, Patty. (I took the pics with my cell-phone camera, and they’re not high-res enough for a good zoom-in.) It does closely resemble Texas betony, but the flowers look not quite right. You can be sure I’ll take a closer look next time I’m there! —Pam
I tend to like somewhat sparse or austere plantings, and this one definitely has some appeal. Though, I’d definitely want to add more low ground covers, at least, to reduce the need for weeding. It’s hard to tell from the distance of the photos, but I think Patty may be right in thinking the red flowers belong to Stachys coccinea. A lot of pictures online show it misleadingly tall, but in others it’s low and spreading.
I’ll take a closer look next time, Evan, and post an update here if I figure out what that plant is. It may be Texas betony, but on first look I didn’t think so. —Pam
I recognize that gravel situation – it is an ongoing struggle here to keep our DG areas cleared of volunteers. Wildflowers love the stuff (as do weed seeds) and we’ve often joked it might be easier to simply let the flowers have the paths while we stand around enjoying them from the relative empty spaces of the garden beds.
If that is Betony it is the largest colony I’ve ever seen. Impressive! The deer here keep the plant I trialled very well trimmed. (they eat my four nerve daisies too while leaving the ones in front of city hall untouched, so…grr….).
Happy Holidays to you and all your family!
I cracked up over your joke about admiring your wildflowers from the empty garden beds, Deb. 🙂
Deer munch my Texas betony too, and they decimated my four-nerve daisies. I eventually moved the daisies to my protected back garden, but I keep hoping the betony will toughen up and become untasty. The leaves have such a strong fragrance that I still can’t quite believe the deer will eat it. —Pam
Watching gardens that I drive by mature and fill in is a favorite sport. I haven’t figured out the balancing act between bare ground inviting weeds and overplanting to the extent that everything mushes together.
It IS fun to see gardens mature, especially when the owners are obviously invested in making a pretty space. —Pam
Beautiful. We’d be run out of the city here – by our city leaders – if we landscaped like this! lol
Maybe it’s time to remind them that they’re working for you, not the other way around, John. 🙂 —Pam