Today’s new home buyers may find “turf and two trees” included in their purchase, but when Sunset Acres developed in the early 1970s, newly-built homes were sold surrounded by bare earth. The Natal family, still living on Lockwood Drive at the intersection of Magnolia Drive in San Marcos, turned a wasteland into a green yard full of colorful flowers and now mature trees, in both the front and back yard open to the side street. Spring Lake Garden Club is honored to name this home as May’s Yard of the Month and recognize the efforts of Mary Natal and her daughters Linda and the late Cathy.
Although she can no longer work in the yard, Mary describes herself as a stay-athome mom who spent her time building the landscape while the children were at school. Imported topsoil formed a base for grass plugs gathered from creek banks. Decorative plants from garden centers provided cuttings to propagate in new beds near the house and around newly planted trees. Mary claims she has no favorite flowers but admits she’s especially fond of roses. Orange flowers are prominent in the landscape, with pale orange crossvine climbing a tree and orange kalanchoe in beds below.
The Natal entry porch presents a variety of plats and garden ornaments.
A stone-edged planting bed around mature tree adds color to landscape.
A sign saved from the old downtown store Paper Bear hangs on the lanai.
Linda Natal explains, “It’s a labor of love” to maintain the stunning variety of colorful plants which bring joy to her family and to nearby neighbors. Every tree in the front yard is ringed with well-mulched beds of flowers and garden ornaments and edged with stones. A corner planting bed at the street intersection includes a large knockout rose bush in full bloom, along with smaller perennials coming into bloom. Even the mailbox beside the front walk is decorated with flowers, carefully painted by daughter Cathy several years ago. The blue mailbox mirrors the color of the house, and deep purple tradescantia surrounds the violet mailbox post.
Most plants in the shadier backyard are clustered in large pots under trees. This haven for shade-loving plants includes several types of ferns – many in hanging pots – as well as succulents and tender flowering plants. Large pots hold banana trees and dark green monsteras with decorative split leaves. During colder weather, many potted plants are moved into a screened porch or “lanai” built some 20 years ago, winterized with sheet plastic and heat lamps as needed. Even with plans for special care, several plants were lost in a freeze while the family were away and unpredictable Texas weather brought low temperatures before their return, but generally this cold weather hideaway has been successful.
Garden ornaments abound at the Natal home, both in planting beds and even up on tree limbs. Numerous bird houses are put out each spring, and feeders are available for birds year around. On the back of the lanai hangs a weathered sign from Paper Bear, the historic San Marcos downtown store where daughter Cathy worked for three decades when she wasn’t busy tendunforgettable ing the home landscape. Linda claims she lacks Cathy’s green thumb but is keeping up a family legacy. Even a quick view of the Natal landscape shows her success.
Spring flowers join splitleaf monstera and banana trees in backyard pots. Photo by Sharon Lockett
