Desert yard (in progress)

That's very good news about the Emu Bush. I still think it is wise to keep it close. Although it may rarely set fertile seed and be notoriously difficult to germinate, that may be as a direct result of a pathogen present in its home soil that is absent here. Could be many variables.

So many projects, so little time.

The greenhouse is what I really want to get to. I'm tired of having all of it's parts in boxes and crate and on pallets all around here. I want it up as in yesterday. Patience was never one of my virtues.

oldmudhouse - I actually live on the NE corner of Hill C. - where two more zones of TX come together. I have read about the winterfat - conflicting notes - do you think it could grow here?
Also, your yard is wonderful the way it is. Maybe tame it here and there w/ a path or bench and add some different kinds of plants like what you are already doing and it will look enviable in a few years despite its wildness.

Equi - your yard looks enormous. Gardening will definitely be a life-long persuit for you. I wish I could see it all together instead of picture pieces. Are you going for an informal or formal look?

Tee he, I am actually eliminating my yard. I'm on a ten year plan.

I like things informal, husband likes the wild look tamed a little bit. We're trying to compromise. Not a word that's generally in my vocabulary when it comes to my property but I'm learing.

I layed buffalo seed in my parents yard at the end of seed-laying season. Of course, that is when the drought started. My parents worked hard watering for a few weeks, then cut back. When they cut back the watering, that is when the buffalo really started to grow and spread. My brother is watching their yard and told me that if it works in their yard, he would be interested, too.
The trouble is killing the grass already there...

I don't understand why everyone wouldn't want a green-grassed yard w/ little to no watering needs and little to no mowing needs?

Since the 40's we've been sold a bill of goods that lawns are wholesome and that all good little Americans have a lawn. Lawns are toxic as far as I'm concerned. So many chemicals to keep them looking like golf course turf. Not to mention all the emissions from mowing them.

Please note that I have an incredible amount of lawn. It's quite obvious I've been a model American in the lawn department. I fit right in with all the other suburbanite who are slaves to their lawns around here.

Well, we still have grass but finally we have less than two acres of it. We sold our riding mower when we left TX and don't miss it. Still have the dratted bermuda grass here, but less of it. I agree, probably the biggest hurdle to replacing it with buffalograss is how do we kill all of the bermuda for good?

Indirt, I don't remember ever seeing Winterfat in any of the nurseries in my hill co area, but I honestly don't know why. One site I checked said it's hardy from zones 4-10, and the USDA map shows it in a part of TX that is (I think) about 3 counties east of you. And they show it further north too. Someone could correct me but I don't know why it wouldn't work for you...? This is my first time to grow it, I've read about it but never ordered it.

There are a lot of plants that I grew back in TX that would do well here too, I just have to be careful about where I put them. Most of these recent purchases are headed right for the "scorching oven" part of my yard, so I'll be carrying buckets to get them established. No water lines over there yet, but supposedly they will exist in the future. :-)

Have you posted pics of your yard anywhere I can peek at them?

Equil, compromise always seems like such a nice idea, but for some reason I'm not very good at it. Our "area of most disagreement" is usually pruning, but I'm trying to be better about it.

I'd love to post pics of my "yard" - ha ha! Don't have one.

Here is a pic of my future garden area

And here is another gardening spot - the septic lines go here. This is out the back of the house-to-be

I recently bought two books on replacing lawns w/ natives and native grasses. The section on buffalo says to not water it so much b/c the water invites the other grass to come back from the neighbor's yard. Although somewhat drought tolerant, bermuda cannot stand the dryness that buffalo can. When the ground is dry, the buffalo will flourish when the other grasses need sprinkled, according to my book.

My parents' yard is a testament to that. While watering the seed, the neighbors grass kept creeping in as did many weeds. Since they stopped watering it so much, the buffalo is spreading. It is soft and dark green. I think we will overseed it again and sometime next year they should have a full yard I can take a picture of.

I will try growing the winterfat - maybe it is another horticultural secret.

As far as my yard goes, it is a blank canvas. I like blank canvas. When it comes to gardening I love a challenge. My DH's rule in the past has been "you can only buy it if you have a place for it". I think he will have a new rule w/ this yard. I could go crazy w/ the old rule!

Equi - you are right that an informal look would soften the architectural lines of your home and draw the house and yard together into one. Perhaps your entry way could be more formal (though haven't seen it) to appease DH?

I like the idea of plant swapping more and more. I have some to share, I can get some that I don't have...

Wow! That is gorgeous! What beautiful trees! You have a wonderful backdrop in place for a lovely garden. That is a great blank slate, I hope you will post pictures as you go. You're right, your husband may have to create some new guidelines to govern your plant purchases. Do you have deer there? They were my no. 1 enemy in the hill country, bar none.

There are parts of our yard that are bare sand in drought times, you would think the bermuda was never coming back...but it always recovers miraculously when seasonal rains arrive. Those deep underground runners are apparently always waiting. Maybe it would not be able to spring back if it had the buffalograss to compete with? I'll definately need to do more research if/when we decide to tackle it. Water is expensive here (we had a well in TX, and a river to pump from) so anytime we're watering it's painful to the pocketbook. Another reason to cut back even further on the bermuda.

Well indirt, that certainly qualifies as a yard for me! It's a keeper!

And, the courtyard/entryway to the home is considerably more organized complete with a decorative pond and a black architectural arch of some sort although I would have liked that area to be rammed with plants attacking guests as they walked up too.

There are deer here and we plan to feed them. There are some specific understory plants that they like to graze and would be pretty in the woods.

The dozer guy was a tree man and kept all the big hardwoods he could. Mostly cut down Juniperus virginiana - everyone here calls "cedar". They choke out anything that is not of its kind, except the lovely greenbriar. As we looked for a place to put the house, we decided on this spot for the live oak that is in front. The picture doesn't do it justice. It was being choked by junipers until we cut them all away. Oldmudhouse - we kept the really big junipers for the birds.

We got rain from Sunday night to this morning! We danced in the rain we were so happy! Thank the Lord!

Bermuda - gotta kill it in its growing season - best in the morning before the sun turns hot. w/ what is a good question. We used Roundup, but I hear that is bad even though it has a short half-life. got any thoughts Equi?

I don't have a problem with RU. Some plants are becoming resistant to it so I use it sparingly.

Hey, congratulations on the rain! We are having a great rains here, the wettest monsoon season in years. My yard loves it.

Yes, we had lots of cedar too and I dragged many loads to the burn pile while my husband cut it down. We always got a new crop of seedlings but you can keep on top of those. We kept some of the old large cedars too, limbed them up so we could walk around. Once we removed most of the cedar, the native grasses and yuccas started slowly reappearing. I think the cedars just use up any available water in their area and outcompete other plants.

Hopefully you will be able to coexist happily with the deer, they are very beautiful to watch. In our early years there they weren't much of a problem, until the deer population just got out of control. (That's when I started taking their munching personally!)

Live oaks are truly a treasure, I am sure yours thanks you for freeing it from that thirsty cedar! You make me remember how much I miss our big old oaks.

why did you move?

I was escaping the deer! (Just kidding.) It was a wonderful place to live, we were just ready for a change. I have family here in NM that I wanted to be closer to, and we were ready to take a break from our business as well. It's been really interesting to go from riverbanks to desert, but fortunately I knew the desert from living here as a child, so I already loved those plants too.

You know, sometimes you just have to shake things up a bit, to reassess where you are and what you're doing. Basically we decided that life is short, and it was OK to have new adventures in a new place. We had restored an old house and enjoyed that too, but I guess we were ready for some new vistas.

How about you...is this a new house for you, or a new house and location as well?

Gee, we moved here to be closer to family, too. We wanted to be someplace warmer than MN. Whenever we came to TX to visit, I always felt like it was home. So, when DH "lost" his job in MN, instead of getting another, we moved. He found a job here in the midst of moving (God blessed us HUGE). I wanted to live in the country, my DH wanted to live w/in 30 min of work. We are both happy here.
I should mention that God led us to move, too. One of the ways I know is that I opened a mini magazine to read what was bound to be a tear jerker, but I did it anyway. The story was about a couple who decided to move closer to family that was 1000 mi. away and all the emotions in the decisions and why, etc. The article put into words emotions I had been feeling a long time and my family was also exactly 1000 mi away. My DH family a little more than 1000 mi., but in the wrong direction! No way, no how were we moving N! What tinglies I got in reading that article! And that feeling of "just knowing".

Never lived in this part of TX before, so I can't say I am familiar w/ all the natives. Most ETX natives don't work here.

I would love to learn more about the desert plants/ life in your yard. It has to be fascinating and on edge - so delicate the balance.
Do you have bats?
When I was a kid, we lived in NM and visited Carlsbad a few times. OH, the bats that came out of that cave at dusk - what a show!

Indirt, I hope being closer to your family will be as rewarding for you as it is for me. Big changes are difficult but so often I find they are rewarding (once you work up the courage? insanity? to make the commitment!) We don't regret making these changes at all, even though it was a very tough year prior to our move. Thank goodness our gamble has paid off...we feel good about being here.

I know you'll enjoy learning about the natives in your area! Maybe there's a native plant club in Hico...the one in Kerrville had an annual sale that was a fabulous way to pick up natives that you never saw in the nurseries. I was not able to spend as much time gardening then as I can now, but if you are considering a plant you think I might know about, let me know! I got our Winterfat planted yesterday, I'll try to take a pic later today to show you.

We do have bats here, I see them at twilight. But I really think we had more in TX! They lived in the attic of our old rock garage. I'm sure it was a mess up there but the entire little "rustic" building was on its last legs so we just kind of let the bats have it. I only saw a bat down in the lower part of the garage once. (I had my washer and dryer in there, and after ducking a few times I decided not to do laundry that night.)

OK, two more days and that nursery will mark everything left down to 75% off...y'all keep your fingers crossed for me that they will have some good native plants left so I can snarf them up!

Oh, how fun! Love a good deal!

Can't wait to see a picture of your winterfat. I've only seen pictures of it in fruit.

This move, to date, has lasted 1 1/2 yrs. 2 yrs. since DH quit his job. We don't regret it. When times got tough, all we had to do was to think about the mosquitoes or the icy snow.

DG has a wonderful plant swap for Central TX and I plan on going. There are some natives I have I can swap for others I don't. Great deal!