Yard of the Month

December’s honoree for Spring Lake Garden Club’s Yard of the Month is an unusual long-distance gardener. In just one year Armando Lopez has transformed the front yard of his house on Field Street in Rio Vista Terrace into an outdoor showcase, after renting it for several years once he and his son moved to Austin. At Thanksgiving 2021, Armando’s parents moved into his former residence to be near medical resources in San Marcos, but Lopez continues his gardening efforts with twice-a-week visits to the house. Although he now lives in a downtown Austin apartment, Lopez still tends a San Marcos lawn bordered with a variety of plants in well-mulched beds. He reports this arrangement is “the best of both worlds.”

The landscape renovation included planting numerous rose bushes for his mother to enjoy, and now Lopez’s father goes out in early morning to water plants by hand, which benefits his own health as well as the roses. Removing two thick shade trees along one side of the lot ensured more sunshine to encourage flowering of the new roses and existing purple crape myrtles in a side bed opposite the driveway. Heavy mulching eases weed control and also helps retain moisture in the soil. A white picket fence behind this bed echoes the house’s white trim and forms a backdrop for nandina and other low shrubs along the lot line. Two bottle brush shrubs planted near the far front corners of the lawn will provide showy red blooms when they mature. A Shumard oak centers the lawn’s left side next to the driveway and predates other plants added to the landscape.

In addition to new plantings, Lopez installed new hardscape elements in the front yard, including a concrete walk to the front door with a small seating area beside the roses. A curved white arbor placed at the street end of the walk will eventually be covered by climbing jasmine with its fragrant flowers. Other plants beside the arbor are colorful bougainvillea, oleander, and purple sage. This front bed extends along a low retaining wall beside the sidewalk and street, a result of neighborhood street renovation several years ago. Two concrete steps bisect the wall and lead up to yard level, so the landscape has a clear boundary accented by the central arbor over the front walk. Decorative night lighting for the yard is provided by downlights in the front soffit, controlled by a photocell to turn on at sunset.

Lopez has found one fairly successful deer deterrent to protect front yard plants: a motion sensor with bright flashing light is mounted on a stake in the lawn. Keeping deer away from non-native plants can be a full-time job in urban areas of Central Texas, but Lopez reports less damage from browsing deer than in neighbors’ yards.

Like any serious gardening project, the Lopez front yard is “a work in progress.” But after only one year’s effort, Armando Lopez clearly has mastered long-distance landscaping.