Gardening in West Texas

When gardening in West Texas, we want landscapes that are low-maintenance and water efficient. We want it all–bushes, flowers, trees AND a low water bill.

We have a yard that actually has it all!

The time required for maintenance in the yard is minimal. We have a large vegetable garden and we have lots of annual patio plants. We do spend quite a bit of time in the spring during planting season. However, we could still have a beautiful yard and patio using perennials on the patio and eliminating the vegetable gardens.

Earth-Kind Methodology

When we were planning out our new yard, we attended a three week course presented by the county extension office on Earth-kind methodology. Before attending the class, we were planning a rock front yard with desert plants among boulders. The class converted us to Earth-kind Methodology and our outlook on gardening in West Texas is forever changed.

Earth-Kind Landscaping is a registered trademark of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. Texas A&M AgriLife Extension and Texas County Extension Services educate people about Earth-Kind tenets of gardening. Landscape design using Earth-Kind methods result in low-maintenance, water efficient and rock-free landscapes.

The Low-maintenance Key

We use four inches of Texas Hardwood Mulch on top of all soil that isn’t part of the tiny lawn. The mulch is a medium brown color and doesn’t overshadow the plants or clash in color. Mulch doesn’t break down quickly and it is soft to walk on. However, it does benefit from topping off every year. This sounds bleak and barren but actually is a great backdrop to our free-form plantings.

We haven’t had very many issues with the mulch washing away during rain storms. It forms a sturdy blanket and compacts to a three inch shield. In the few spots that the mulch washes, we added an irregular foot wide strip of two inch river rocks. The mulch does wash into the rocks but results in a softer edge between the rock and the mulch.

The lawn is 100 square feet of Sahara Bermuda grass that requires 20 minutes to mow and edge each week. The hardest part of maintaining a lawn this small is that it is hard to buy small enough packages of lawn food.

The mulch smothers weeds, shades the roots of the trees, bushes and flowers and helps to retain moisture. Some weeds do root into the top of the much and need to be pulled or eliminated with weed killer. Weeds are not a huge problem and the mulch has fewer weeds than my neighbors that use rock xeriscape.

The Water-Efficient Key

During initial landscaping, we chose low-angle sprinklers in the grass area and six drip irrigation stations. Our drip irrigation is 1/2″ hose that sits on top of the ground and under the mulch. When we need to add new irrigation, we punch a hole in the hose and insert a pressure compensating dripper. We add a dripper when the existing hose isn’t close, by cutting the hose and inserting a plastic “T” connector. Then, we can run the additional hose directly to the new plant.

We size the dripper based on the water needs of the plant. We also use multiple drippers for trees and bushes that require more water. In addition, we use a 1/2″ dripper hose for areas where we plant seeds and areas that require more water. We set each watering station to water for the length of time required by the plants within that station. We have a grass station, three general yard stations, an annual station, a back porch potted plant station and a raised bed station.

During the hottest part of the summer, we have a twice weekly irrigation program that waters all stations the length of time necessary to output on inch of water to each plant. We have set up an additional irrigation program that waters the annuals, patio plants and raised garden beds more often.

We have been able to isolate the yard watering from the household use and, during the heat of the summer, the drip irrigation and sprinklers add about $25 to $30 a month to the base water bill.

Sweeps of Color and Limited Grass Front Yard Design

When we attended the Earth-Kind landscape class, a complementary front yard design consult was included as part of the class. We were able to implement the recommended design and are very pleased with the concepts from the design. The grass area of the front yard was limited to an asymmetrical band, bordered by wide sweeps of color.

Both sides of the yard are anchored by trees with large sweeps of pink roses or showy blue sage bushes. A large bed of pink phlox and scullcap were added in front of the grass along the street. A good source of Earth-Kind plants are found at Wildseed Farms in Fredricksburg. Wildseed Farms carries many Texas Superstar plants that form the backbone of the Earth-Kind landscape.

We created the foundation planting with Dwarf Yaupon Hollies and Asiatic Jasmine. Pink Zinnias and Pincushion Flowers add interest by the front door.

The Bird Sanctuary

The bird sanctuary is a small 300 square foot side yard that is a dedicated backyard bird habitat. The birds have shelter in the honeysuckle vine and bushes. We provide water and food at multiple feeders. The bushes are all flowering and attract hummingbirds as well as multitudes of butterflies. It is a great deal of fun to watch birds out the kitchen dining area that has a large window overlooking the sanctuary. Our guests love identifying their favorite birds and in watching bird antics.

Beauty and Utility in a Backyard Design

Herb Garden

We created the herb garden using limestone rocks that define three foot square sections. Each section has one or two types of herbs. All of the herbs benefit from the partial shade from the fence that runs along the driveway. All of the herb beds have drip irrigation and mulch between the plants. We soften the edges of the rock beds using a large Walker’s Low Catmint, summer bulbs and daylilies.

Low-maintenance and Water Efficient Main Yard

The main section of the yard is completely mulched over 1/2″ irrigation hose. This is the largest part of the backyard and our focus was to plant for low-maintenance and water efficient results. The raised beds are softened by plantings at the end of the beds. A coral Cross-Vine grows on three oversize trellises and provides privacy from the alley, as do two Coral Vines on trellises on the fence shared with the next door neighbors.

Raised Bed Vegetable Gardens

We plant three raised bed vegetable gardens each spring and fall. The gardens have soaker-hose drip irrigation covered by mulch. The gardens are large enough to let us rotate our crops between beds and to flip-flop within a bed from year to year. We do a mix of seeds and plants from the garden center. We use a cut-off valve to allow a bed watering independently from the other raised beds. This comes in handy in the fall and winter when we limit our planting to lettuce, kale and spinach and we don’t fill all the beds. See my post on water efficient vegetable gardening for more details.

A lush and Beautiful Patio

We have seven potted plant areas with manifolds that allow watering from four 1/4″ hoses. This allows watering of 28 plants. We can add additional plants by splitting out a hose into multiple watering ends. The setup is very flexible and we have been able to irrigate hanging plants, plants on plant stands as well as a raised rolling garden bed. Colors jumble on the patio and self expression is the name of the game. Interesting pots, fascinating textures and flowers abound. Whimsical statues peek between pots and collected fossil rocks add interest.

And Finally…

Our Earth-Kind, drip irrigated landscape has it all. It is low-maintenance and water efficient. The sweeps of color in the front yard result in cars slowing down to look at the yard. Neighbors vie to peek into the lush backyard whenever the back gate is open. The bird sanctuary is the busiest place for birds in the entire neighborhood.

We hope that you have enjoyed our take on gardening in West Texas and that you are able to see beyond rocks and desert plants for your landscape.