Stylish xeric garden complements a sleek modern home

Continuing with our preview of gardens for the Watersaver Landscape Tour to be held on October 24th.  When friend and fellow blogger Heather Ginsburg of Xericstyle, who also works as a conservation consultant for San Antonio Water System (SAWS), contacted me about previewing gardens for the tour I jumped at the chance to visit these very special gardens.  Pam Penick of Digging joined me from Austin for a day of garden tours, so after seeing Pat Mozersky's lush foliage garden we drove just a few blocks to tour an entirely different landscape style:  a modern xeric garden.

Where in Texas is this?

Landscape inspiration is something I'm always looking for when out for a walk.  This is a good one for my inspiration file.   A nice planting of native and drought tolerant perennials and succulents accented with low limestone walls. 

Ashe junipers with hesperaloe parviflora, zexmenia, Manfreda 'Macho Mocha', blackfoot daisy, yucca, lantana, nepeta, and nandina are all great selections for San Antonio.

Except this is not in San Antonio or even Central Texas.  Let's take a look at the wider shot.

Juniper as ground cover?  Juniper ground cover would burn out in a San Antonio summer so it's pretty rare.

This landscaping is on a golf course in Plano, Texas, about 300 miles north of San Antonio.  I'm pretty sure this space was planted with boring, water-guzzling annuals in past years because I don't remember noting anything special about the landscaping here before.

The drought has brought changes to landscaping in Plano and more xeric combinations like this one are popping up all over town this year as a result of water restrictions.  I think it looks far more interesting too.

Oh, and the sunset we were there to watch was nice too.