We hate lawn grass, so there is none to be found in our front yard. The existing front yard began about 8 years ago when we had Felicano’s Tree Services design a plan for, and put in, most of the ornamental grasses that live in the verge between the sidewalk and the street. The super cool plants we like best are the many Carex grasses that become a bright, highlighter golden-yellow after being watered, especially so in full sun after a good rain. The other grasses are variegated Dianella and Lomandra. Liriope fills in a couple corners without being invasive and also responds to nearly every rain with small white blooms. There are small areas of creeping and elfin thyme, that have spread to form a dense low-growing carpet. Creeping thyme can be hardy enough to withstand light foot traffic and was planted here as a grass-alternative experiment for future projects in our back yard. There are also thyme and lavender under the crepe myrtle tree.
The windstorm last year and the last two freezes have not been kind to our yard. We lost two trees and much more, so it was time for a new look. In September of 2024, we had the yard on our side of the sidewalk graded and amended with organic garden soil. We then had an 1800-lb moss rock delivered for our dog to hop onto. Compost was brought in, and I tilled it in manually, and watered every other day or so for 2 weeks before planting.
My wife, Jodie, wanted 1) a water feature, 2) lots of purple flowers, and 3) a lighting feature. With two completely bare areas on either side of the entry path, I needed a starting point. I found some wonderfully concise yet thorough gardening plans on the Better Homes & Gardens website. These plans are nicely thought out. Each plan has a layout diagram on a scaled grid, a plant list with Zone suitability, and a color-pencil sketch rendering of the final plan. I zeroed in on two plans: the “Tough-as Nails Perennial Garden” for one side of the entry path, and the “Beginner Garden for Full Sun” for the other side. Nearly all plants were already hardy for Zone 9, which I double checked. I also made my own list of mosquito-repelling plants thinking of a protection zone around our front porch, and a bit in the yard. I also modified the list to get in as many pollinators as possible.
While I did not follow the “Tough as Nails” plan fully, it helped me stay organized and gave me a sense of scale. I put most of the plants in the ground in late September and early October of 2024. That area is now fully established and needs very little attention! Not a bad timeline. All are native perennials and drought hardy. Many plants have purple flowers. Happy wife check number one! The unexpected standouts are the Copper Canyon Daisy, with its lemony minty licorice smell coming off the leaves, which is sometimes already fragrant at sunrise, and then fills the yard by just running your hand through it. I have had to trim it back three times already to keep it from intimidating smaller plants! Sometimes you can smell the many small rosemary bushes as well. Our other favorite is the Catmint (not Catnip) that stays low, has purple flowers, and spreads but stopping at obstacles like other plants or hard edging. Our dog likes to eat leaves off the Orange Zexmenia, and occasionally will hop up on Pride Rock for a better vantage point. Zoey has some good smelling shaded spots in which to cool off, so no doghouse needed. Other plants are 4’ tall Salvia (scarlet pineapple, and blue suede), Bicolor Sage which is a Salvia variant that is more of a ground cover, Fragrant Mist bushes with white flowers, about 5 small Rosemary bushes, and bee balm. Some volunteer plants have appeared; I have no idea what they are, but we are just watching nature do its thing! The most recent addition, inspired by a neighbor’s yard of the month, is a retama tree that will provide dappled shade. The retama is growing like mad – nearly a foot every couple weeks. “It looks like a little prairie,” said a friend and neighbor recently and we are running with that.
Our prairie has attracted so many bees, and a variety of butterflies. Our world desperately needs bees. And we get a variety of them. Fat slow bees. “Normal” bees. Skinny bees. To keep the bees hydrated, we have bee watering stations in a few places around the yard. These are just fanciful small dishes on a stake, with glass beads inside to provide the bees a place to perch and not drown. There are two water features. Happy wife check number two! One is just an oversized terracotta bowl with a tiny water pump. Just enough to provide some aeration and sound. The other is a 17-gallon copper trough (think mini pond) sunk into the ground. Frogs have discovered it and enjoy breeding there. I built a bog filter for the trough out of a roughly 15” x 12” terracotta pot. I suggest checking out ozponds on YouTube for motivation and clear design instructions if you need a bog filter. Creeping Jenny, Lemon Bacopa and Water Purslane in the bog and trough feed off the nutrients produced by the beneficial bacteria in the bog.
In the other half of the front yard, I added a cool looking Core-Ten steel light fixture with a branches and stars motif. We rebuilt the entry steps with new risers and non-slip (even when wet) Travertine steps and built-in step lighting. There is something special at night about lighting that is low to the ground. Happy wife check number three! And instead of planting exclusively perennials or following the “Full Sun” plan at all, I instead spread the contents of 9 wildflower seed packs across the entire area in March of this year. Most of those are now 4’ tall, and the bees and butterflies are finding them too, a different kind of mini-prairie. Other plants in this area are Mexican Marigold, chives, milkweed and lavender.
Special thanks again to Feliciano’s Tree Services for the enormous amount of prep work removing remnants of trees, grading, and moving brick, rock & flagstones. Thank you also to my friend Marlene for donating two volunteer plants back in September; two Porterweed bushes, to get us started. Go bees!
We want to thank Joshua’s Native Plants & Garden Antiques for the very nice gift card awarded to our August yard of the month recipients. Joshua’s is located at 502 W. 18th St. 713-862-7444 www.joshuasnativeplants.net
