Native deer and imported peacocks are regular visitors to Spring Lake Garden Club’s March Yard of the Month on Allen Street, just a block from Wonder World Cave and Wildlife Park. Home of Alan Atchison and Minnette Marr since 2006, this tree-shaded property combines native and urbanized plants in an attractive year-round sustainable landscape.
Deer are no strangers to San Marcos yards, so a few wire cages protect plants in this front yard. But peacocks may actually add to the plant mix by bringing in seeds caught in their trailing tails, according to Marr, a plant conservationist and curator of seed collection at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
This Allen Street yard includes numerous oaks and anacua trees, whose flowers and seeds attract both birds and bees. Anacuas have arching branches similar to a live oak but grow much faster, and the leaves are easily identified by a surface that feels like sandpaper. Under the trees is a simple mix of grasses and ground covers interspersed with numerous twist-leaf yuccas and mounding bear grass. Atchison and Marr added drought-tolerant native plants after settling here and got rid of light-starved carpet grass by cutting off supplemental watering. Replacement ground cover includes native grasses and spreading plants such as straggler daisy or horse herb and false dayflower. Atchison uses a push mower to trim the current mix of green surrounding islands of yucca and bear grass, edged with rocks to slow rainwater flow towards the street.
