This Austin, Texas event is great for people who like looking at beautiful yards  & water features.  It’s a great way to [...]]]> My home in Leander, Texas is one of the ponds on the Austin Pond Society Night Tour tonight, 7/18/09 from 8:00pm to 11:00pm.

My Home, an Austin Pond Society Feature

This Austin, Texas event is great for people who like looking at beautiful yards  & water features.  It’s a great way to get ideas for your own projects.  For refreshments I am planning to serve organic lemon grass tea, organic mint tea from my gardens.  My yard is accessible.  There are slightly uneven surfaces but no steps.  Many other ponds are accessible as well.

Water Features

Leopard Frog on Lilly in My Pond

My Water Features include a disappearing fountain by my front door, which was my 1st water feature.  When I bought my home there was a full size oleander trying to live in this small 2’ X 2’ space!!  I lined the hole with an EPDM liner, added a grate, small pump & vessel.  After adding river bed rocks and water I was in business and amphibians moved in.

The Creation of my waterfall and bog

My pond, waterfall & bog are in my backyard & were hand built over 2 years.  It all started when my son and I started digging a small hole for a small pond one evening.  Every article on pond building that I read said that many pond owners felt their pond was not big enough and encouraged you to build a pond a good size from the beginning.  So we did.  I have goldfish and a hybrid koi/goldfish in my pond.  Also Rosy Reds, snails, Leopard frogs and toads.  A teeny tiny, bird sounding frog called “Peepers” live in my yard too.

I do organic edibles and xeriscaping in my front yard.  The front yard is, sadly, water hogging St. Augustine, what yard I have left.  The small back lawn is a wide blade Zoysia- it rocks!  I have numerous Native Trees & other plants that support butterflies, bees & wildlife.  My yard is a National Wildlife Federation Certified Wildlife Habitat™.  I share my peaches, blackberries, tomatoes, water & other food with wildlife.  I put the lights in my backyard so I could work in the yard in the cooler nights of HOT Summer.

The Cabana, Patio and Greenhouse

The bar is made out of an old Mexican blanket chest I found on Craig’s List.  Topped with a solid piece of stone, we added shelves, a native juniper (“cedar”) foot rest & native stone around the bottom.  The 2 signs are from Craig’s List.

Stone Patio: Well over 10 tons of locally quarried Native stone were used in this project.  I went to Florence and Jarrell to pick out and order stone.  I set the natural patio stones in sand and finished it off with decomposed granite.  This created a permeable surface to allow the rain to water my beloved Live oak trees.  It is part of my get rid of lawn process.  The large stone patio is also a surface that our active & large German Shepherd (from Blue Dog Rescue) cannot tear up.

My greenhouse is built out of primarily recycled materials which include a used door, used window and 3 sheets of glass from old sliding glass patio doors.  The greenhouse has been great for keeping my plants from freezing in winter.

My large, irregularly shaped Dog Run is made of hog fence panels, landscape timbers & cedar posts installed in a shady, breezy area with a low maintenance, no-mud pea gravel floor.

Current Improvements

I am currently doing more retrofitting of my home to be even Greener.  On my list is finishing the gutter system and adding a large rainwater collection system. I plan to use tall, rectangular brown colored tanks that will fit up against the house.  I will be taking out the strip of grass on the east side of my driveway and installing crushed rock.

For those whose lawns look weathered and barren now. remember, we are in the dead of winter- the grass has been dormant but will come to life soon. We had a horribly harsh summer with the drought a dry first part of the winter and [...]]]> Lawn Grass in Leander & Cedar Park Texas

For those whose lawns look weathered and barren now. remember, we are in the dead of winter- the grass has been dormant but will come to life soon. We had a horribly harsh summer with the drought a dry first part of the winter and we are just now getting blessed with a little rain. A good dose of Dillo Dirt or other organic fertilizer and these continued showers will do our lawns good. The Grass Patch on Ronald Reagan Blvd. (aka Parmer) in Leander sells and installs lawn grass. Farmer’s Nursery on Leander Drive in Leander does as well- not positive they install, but they sell as well as have a lawn grass demonstration area located to the left of their gate as you drive in. In the Farmer’s demo plot you can see real lawn grass growing and determine which look is right for you.  If you go to Farmer’s please tell ‘em “Sandy” sent you.  I bought so much builder’s sand and other supplies during my backyards de-grassing that my name was changed by them.  Another good resource is the Williamson County Ag. Extension office. Yet another resource is the Native Plant Society of Texas. Georgetown has a very active group. Unfortunately for ME- they meet on Thursday nights when I have P & Z (Leander Planning & Zoning Commission meetings). The City of Leander has one of the best water conservation ordinances in the state as well as a recommended plant list of natives are hardy adapted plants & grasses. Builders must use Bermuda grass or Zoysia in new home landscape construction and may NOT use the water hogging St. Augustine. Commonly called “carpet” grass, St. Augustine may be good for Houston, parts of Florida or other areas with high annual rainfall amounts but not here in the Texas Hill Country.

I have 3 types of grass in my lawn (what’s left of it). Zoysia, a wide stemmed variety, Bermuda and St. Augustine. Little by little I have been removing large expanses of lawn and replacing it with low maintenance stone or granite, or xeriscaping or edibles. Neither my son nor my husband like to mow, edge, weed eat, water or otherwise care for a lawn.

I would encourage anyone contemplating putting in a lawn to think long and hard about it. Many yards are totally lawnless and look great and are functional. I have seen local landscape designers create masterpieces of hardy & beautiful plants and walkways of granite, tile or stone that aesthetically rival the finest & fanciest lawns. Maybe you could just pare down the amount of lawn and add wide pathways around the perimeter with crushed granite or stone. I put in a large native stone patio using 10 tons of native patio stone at $80. a ton 2 years ago. Set in sand and filled in with decomposed granite, it created a pervious, all weather expansive area in my back yard. I also put in a pond with a bog or biological filter to keep it clean without the use of any chemicals.

My Backyard in Leander, Texas

My yard is a Certified Wildlife Habitat. I garden sustainably, by organic methods. The City of Austin, Texas has a great Grow Green program. One huge aspect of the program is protecting our water supply. Nitrates and Atrazine are being found in our waterways due to Weed and Feed and other chemical fertilizers being applied to lawns and then being carried down to creeks, streams and lakes when it rains with the stormwater runoff. Deformed frogs have been linked to lawn chemicals such as pesticides. That is why the Texas Parks and Wildlife Dept. has a Texas Amphibian Watch program to document frogs and toads.

Leopard Frog on Lilly in My Pond

You see, amphibians serve as bio-indicators worldwide of how safe our environment is for us to live in.  If anybody wants to participate in the Frogwatch program, my yard’s pond is available for the study & we do have several species in our pond & yard.  Please also think of your pets and children playing on your lawn.

In my front yard, large strips of grass along the entire front edge and sides have been removed. I replaced it with xeriscaping & edible landscaping including fruit trees, vegetables and herbs. I also added some boulders- they require no maintenance or water! My goal is to have an aesthetically pleasing landscape that adds to the value of my home while eliminating as much water use and maintenance as possible while actually yielding fruit, vegetables and herbs. For more information see EDIBLE ESTATES: ATTACK ON THE FRONT LAWN A Project by Fritz Haeg & The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping: Home Landscaping with Food-Bearing Plants and Resource-Saving Techniques: by Rosalind Creasy (Sierra Club Books). These as well as many other books, pictures & websites prove that our yards can be water conserving, low maintenance, productive AND aesthetically pleasing all at the same time.