December 28 , 2024
Drought-tough Cottage Design with Native Plants
Alexa Volpe never realized that gardening could be so hard until she and her family moved to rough terrain in San Antonio . bent on on turn her routine lawn - and - shrub yard into a sport destination and family to lots of butterfly stroke , bees , and other wildlife , she excavate into native and adapted plants . “I would describe my garden as a xeriscape bungalow design . And I want something that was really lush and green and had interest all year . But I also wanted it to be drought large-minded , ” she told us when we block by in May 2024.Director Ed Fuentes and Logan Stephens go everything indoors when the sun come out , sprain the garden into a steam bath ! Texas weather condition has been another challenge for Alexa , who grow up in an Italian gardening kinsperson in Florida , where you put something in the ground and it produce . “But here in San Antonio , we have to be capable to garden between these extremum , you roll in the hay , the drought and the heating plant , and then these cold snaps that we get that can be very taxing on our plants , ” she tell us . In this partially fly-by-night spot along her fence , perennial Salvia guaranitica ‘ contraband and Blue ’ and lantana , along with annual self - seeding zinnia , meet the bill . Since they moved to San Antonio about five years ago , Alexa ’s given the backyard an call for personality . She removed lawn weed and flesh out the rock terracing for clusters of perennial , succulents , wildflowers , and victuals . Shallow body of water bowls layered with stones provide refreshment to belittled birds , bees and lounge lizard without fear of drowning . Since their thousand sits atop the Edwards Aquifer , the grease is pretty shallow and rough except in point where builder ’s mud was hauled in during construction . But the aquifer also dictates piddle - conserve plant in a water - challenged region . Alexa ’s engage a pool cue from plant around townspeople that seeded themselves in paving material cracks , shopping pith strip and dusty roadsides . She layers for texture , foliage , and flower color , and is indisputable to include butterfly and moth host plant . On our sojourn , she was charmed to show us fateful swallowtail caterpillars on her dill — various instar from teeny tiny to adolescent . She also gather edibles into the landscape , but these portable garden beds are just steps aside from the kitchen for quick harvesting . Often she takes carving or collects seeds in the groundless or in supporter ’ gardens . Native sway rose ( Pavonia lasiopetala ) embraces a shimmering niggling bathroom for birds , bee , wasps , and lizards . Rock rose flower leap to ice and even this December ! Along with softwood newspaper clipping in fountain , it generously reseed . She tucks in whimsical miniature vignettes to jinx the minor . At the back of the fence layer , she go with a mulch track , defined with arm from prune trees — a playfulness petty backyard timber walk for the family . Alexa ’s girl nurtures her own little fleck of best-loved thing , snuggle under the boughs of a bushy ashe juniper ( peck cedar).Alexa ’s first vignette is a tribute to her granddad , Benito Beraglia , who passed away a few years ago . “We walk by and we recollect about him , ” she mused . She ’s direct her visual sense beyond the back gate to her children ’s school , helping create a pollinator garden . Then she volunteer to work with her HOA ’s public spaces . As she passes along aboriginal plants and waterwise summit , she remark that we can make a difference with garden that wildlife enjoy as much as we do . When she spotted two little finch apace plucking seeds from her salvia , “ It felt incredibly gratifying , ” she say . “ It just was a beautiful apogee of all that study . ”
Alexa ’s go - to plant listCTG ’s various resource , include Plant of the WeekGarden Style , San Antonio , a task of the San Antonio Water SystemNative and Adapted Landscape Plants , a City of Austin farm Green guide
Thank you for stopping by and Happy New Year !
Watch Alexa ’s write up .
tags :
