Drive-By Gardens: Waterwise front yard on Castle Hill
Cruising through the Castle Hill area of Old West Austin recently, I spotted this beautiful 1910 home with a sky-blue door and modern landscaping. I hit the brakes for a closer look.
The house sits atop a front yard terraced with Corten steel and board-formed concrete walls. A deep hellstrip mulched with gravel contains a grassy planting of bulletproof red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora), Mexican feathergrass (Nassella tenuissima), woolly stemodia (Stemodia lanata), and whale’s tongue agave (Agave ovatifolia).
That whale’s tongue agave is a stunner, and harmoniously set off with woolly stemodia groundcover. No deer in this neighborhood, so the red yuccas look gorgeous with arched wands of coral flowers. And what a view! An artfully pruned heritage live oak frames the dome of the Texas Capitol.
Hummingbirds were darting from flower to flower, stealing sips of nectar and chasing each other off. I love how the whale’s tongue agave echoes the soft blue of the front door.
Floating steps make a right turn at a steel planter box dotted with small golden barrel cacti. Along the foundation, a steel terraced bed contains a frothy planting of sedge and palmetto — maybe silver saw?
The sedge continues across the right side of the yard. No traditional lawn at all, I think. The house faces southwest, which means the sedge receives pretty much a full day of sun. I’d love to know which variety it is.
I think this front yard is very well designed and appealing with a restrained palette of native and adapted plants. Plus the house itself is a Texas charmer. Bravo!
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Digging Deeper
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What a charming cottage and garden. Whoever is responsible for either of them should be very proud. Matching the door to the agave – genius!
Those kinds of details make a big impact, don’t they? Thanks for stopping by, Paula!
What a wonderful house and garden. I love that front door, too! That porch is begging for some comfy furniture to watch the world go by with an icy drink in hand.
They do need a swing or something on the porch. Then it would be perfect. 🙂
Beautiful! I’m curious, do you think the small golden barrel cactus in the steel planter box were a design choice (they wanted small, liked the look) or a budget/availability issue? I understand you have no way of knowing, I just found myself making up stories and wondered what you thought.
I have a thought on that actually! I looked up the house on Google Maps and saw that, in winter, that planter box had something else planted in it, something herbaceous. My guess is that an earlier planting didn’t survive the winter or had some other issue, and they replaced it come spring with these new baby barrels.
This garden is very inspirational! Almost makes me want to rip out all my lawn and do the Carex – I’m guessing it’s C. texensis or C. berkeleyii. The perfect modern cottage garden.
It is so well done, with what looks like an ease of maintenance with hardy plants and a limited number of species.