Our Frisco Garden

The landscaping when we moved in was pretty much like all the other homes in the community - boring. There were some plants that were just wrong for this area of Texas or for their location. Obviously, when the prior owner tried to gussie it up for sale they employed people who did not know what they were doing. There were hydrangeas and azaleas in full sun and they died in short order. There were plants in front of the front windows that were going to grow so tall as to obscure the view out. We had a large Live Oak in the front yard and it cast so much shade the lawn was sad and some of the planter beds were likewise. Additionally, it seemed to always be dropping things and making a mess. There were also Live Oaks in the parkway. While not as large they were equally undesirable.

Our first change was to the yard on the east side of the house. It gets some shade in the early and late parts of the day and plenty of sun midday. By this time we had been in the Master Gardener program and learned the way to prepare a planter bed that has this awful Houston Black Clay. You rototill down six inches, then till in three inches of expanded shale (a rock that has been superheated and becomes rather like popcorn and helps the soil breathe and accept water) and three inches of compost. Once the bed is planted you apply three inches of mulch to help hold down the weeds and hold in the moisture. Each year you apply another inch of mulch to replace the lowest inch that has decomposed and become part of the plant nutrients.

Our HVAC compressor is on that side of the house, so we had the raised bed installed in two sections. The section toward the street is a flower bed and the section toward the alley is our herb garden.

          Two views of the flower bed and the herb garden

We also have a shade garden on that side of the house and it has a Red Bud tree in it. Mel has done a lot of plant replacement and additions in the shade garden and it is lovely.

    The shade garden and Red Bud tree

We had completed the Master Gardener training program and took a two day landscape design class that included a private consultation and sketch of new landscaping. We decided we really did not like the look of the sketch, so we redid our own plan. We selected plants that are native or drought tolerant or pollinator friendly. Our plan called for removing all three Live Oaks and planting two Shantung Maples in the parkway, leaving the front yard without a center tree. We had to get approval from our HOA to make the changes, so we prepared plans and descriptions that overwhelmed them. They just shook their heads yes.

The next step was to locate a contractor who could do the work, as we had neither the equipment nor the ability to do it all. That done, the project got under way with the removal of the three trees. The turf was removed from parts of the parkway and areas of the front lawn. Raised borders were put in with rebar in the cement base and they were configured so that they adjoined existing beds where appropriate. The plantings were all done and this spring we spread black mulch thickly in all beds. The result is what you see in the following photos. As part of all these changes we converted sprinklers in all planter beds to drip lines, so we only have popup sprinklers in parts of the lawn.

       The view of the front before and after. The after view is an imperfect photo stitch, but shows the landscaping well.

       These are closer in views of the east and west front yards.

The east and west side yards were like the before view of the west below. Part of our redesign was replacement of turf along the west wall of the house with another raised bed.

          These are before and after views of the west side yard.

The back yard was not bad when we moved in, but we have done some additions and replacements there as well. You can see in one of the photos that there as a raised bed along the west fence. That is our vegetable garden and is not particularly attractive. The tall plants you see in the photo are oriental wonder beans - green beans that grow to be as much as 24" long. You just cut them up into smaller pieces and treat them like regular green beans and they are wonderful.

       Two views of the back yard.