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Thursday, May 16, 2013

Gardens on Tour in Austin: Highland Terrace West Part 2 and Foliage Follow-up

This is the "Four and a half" post in my five-part series on the Gardens on Tour for the Ladybird Johnson Wildflower Center in Austin this past Saturday.  I joined Austin bloggers Pam Penick of Digging, Catherine Jones of The Whimsical Gardener, and David Cristiani of The Desert Edge from Albuquerque for a fun day of touring.  Because the garden on Highland Terrace West had so much to show I'm posting the median strip which was included in the tour in a second part.  You can see the Highland Terrace West garden in my previous post.  Since the median mostly foliage I can also multi-task this as Foliage Follow-Up.  Foliage Follow-up is sponsored by Pam at Digging the day after Garden Blogger's Bloom Day.

From the tour brochure:

After the 2008 drought, the homeowner felt compelled to see if she could create a pleasing garden with many challenges: deer, no irrigation, poor soil, and rampant weeds. The median in front of the house demonstrates this and has become a community project for the neighborhood.

This was a good idea to turn what is often an overlooked space into a garden the community can enjoy.  The challenges are outlined above and below you see the results.




Mexican Feather Grass in the breeze, Blackfoot Daisy (oops flowers), Opuntia
 

Iris is xeric and the foliage stays green year round.  Agave in front with Rosemary back under the prickly pear


Silver ponyfoot with Baja beach stones
 

A mulched path with newly planted trees and solar lights.  A plant list was provided but I did not get the names of these trees.



Relax and enjoy this pretty spot in the neighborhood. 


The cushions are pretty, I'd guess they don't stay out all the time.  It is nicely done though. 

For more foliage check out the comments section of Digging. 
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8 comments:

  1. Hoover BooMay 16, 2013 at 2:54 PM

    What an absolutely wonderful way to improve a neighborhood and bring people together. Thanks for sharing it!

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  2. RohrerbotMay 16, 2013 at 3:08 PM

    Holy moly!!! This looks great. I'm loving all the plants here. Looks clean and very very green!

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  3. rickiMay 16, 2013 at 3:53 PM

    I keep admiring that silver ponyfoot in your posts. I wonder if it would do well here...what's the botanical name?
    I like this idea of drawing the neighbors into a project.

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  4. outlawgardenerMay 17, 2013 at 9:01 AM

    Great median and a cool idea for bringing the neighborhood together!

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  5. AnonymousMay 18, 2013 at 10:40 PM

    Love the idea of communal community space! Looks wonderful, and those agaves are amazing!

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  6. UnknownMay 19, 2013 at 9:43 PM

    Love that they did all that in a median! What a lovely change from the usual boring strips of grass (around here).

    ps. Ricki, Silver ponyfoot = dichondra. It's not hardy for me (I'm in Cleveland) but I grow it as a filler/spiller around a few different tropical plants. It overwinters with them inside and flushes out again in the spring.

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  7. Pam/DiggingMay 20, 2013 at 12:47 PM

    I love that this project brought neighbors together. Thanks for including it in your Foliage Follow-Up post.

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  8. ShirleyMay 21, 2013 at 6:13 PM

    Thank you all for your comments, it's fun to hear how much you enjoyed our blogging tour of these gardens.

    Thank you Kim for answering Ricki's question. I have been away for a few days.

    ReplyDelete

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