January’s Yard of the Month, chosen by Spring Lake Garden Club, is a showcase of native and adapted plants, plus volunteer plants that joined the front yard landscape of Pierre Metereau and Rebecca Bell-Metereau on Los Santos Drive to the central road of Vista de los Santos development. Their home since 2015 when Vista de los Santos offered only a few spec houses, the yard began as a builder’s option for a xeriscape rather than a turf lawn, and now a variety of plants cover most of the space except for rock and gravel walkways and a strip of grass near the street. A local landscaper helped plan and plant the back yard, but Pierre and Rebecca relied on their own choices to augment the builder’s plantings in front: two trees plus yuccas and rosemary (since killed by a freeze).
Rebecca chose blue plumbago, not a native but a hardy “adaptive” in central Texas, coupled with native purple verbena as a basic color in the yard. Shrubs near the house include native cenizo or Texas sage as well as a volunteer red-flowered oleander, another adaptive that thrives in this area (or can be cut back to grow again after a freeze). Decorative grasses — purple muhly and Mexican switch grass — were added as contrasting texture to the bedding plants and shrubs. Beds also include lantana and rock rose, which bloom in warmer weather. Then came more volunteers: yellow esperanza and pride of Barbados (possibly from the back yard) added their showy flowers to the mix. A knock-out rose bush, an addition near the entry, offers red blooms even in cooler weather.
The side yard beside the driveway hosts an amazing variety of plants, including dark-green native agarita framed by tall esperanza’s light green leaves. A hedge of dormant crape myrtle, self-spread from a specimen planted near the street, screens the neighbor’s driveway. Mexican switch grass edges the gravel mulch around a lacy oak added to the landscape and lime green bamboo muhly fills out the area near the natural hedge. This collection of plants has matured into its own mini-landscape and requires little maintenance except for occasional pruning. A recent addition of purple-leaved tradescantia near the driveway echoes colors in the main yard.
