Visit the gardens of Christine and Larry Stuart at 702 E 13th from 10:00 to 11:30 AM on Saturday, May 8!

This free garden tour will be outdoors, with lots of room. Please wear a mask.

Christine and Larry Stuart have lived in the Heights for more than twenty years, previously in houses with shady and small yards. When they had the chance to build a house with a spacious, sunny front yard, they opted for lots of color and variety, with space for vegetable and herb gardens. They worked with Heights architects McIntyre and Robinowitz to design a home that integrates indoor and outdoor spaces, which was completed in 2016. Danny McNair and Amy Winstead of Glauser McNair recommended flowering trees and perennials native to Texas to serve as a base for their yard, with room to add additional seasonal and other plantings in the beds over the years.

The front yard includes flowering native Texas trees such as Retama, Texas Mountain Laurel, and Possum Haw Holly, as well as perennials like Salvia, Rudbeckia, Purple Cone Flower, Strawberry Bush, and Gaura, among others, plus colorful and sometimes eclectic annuals. Boulders in the front yard provide spots for the family and its cats to sit and watch the butterflies and bees and listen to the birds. Use of select native grasses and Zoysia lawn created a green space in front with the feeling of movement. Trees and vines in the courtyard bring nature into view from the core of the house. The family grows vegetables, herbs, and fruit in raised beds on the side and at the back of the house, where Larry is learning how to grow food using a variety of planting and organic growing techniques. Most of the plants on the property survived the big freeze.