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A yard filled with flowers in December decorates the home of Amy Mitchell on Mira Loma Lane in San Marcos’ Hills of Hays neighborhood off Staples Road, near Zavala Elementary school. Surrounded by former fields and farmland, residents here deal with our common drought but have no deer to browse blossoms. This December’s Yard of the Month, chosen by Spring Lake Garden Club, is also an example of how quickly a grassy lawn landscape can be transformed into a garden of flowering plants, attracting pollinators like butterflies and bees.
Mitchell moved in almost three years ago and has quickly learned about Texas horticulture, having grown up in Pennsylvania with a very different model of gardening and seasons. But she describes herself as a “chaos gardener, trying whatever and seeing what works,” which is well suited to Texas’ gardening challenges. With outdoor work restricted to weekends, she decided to focus on flowering plants rather than tending a lawn. So the first step in landscaping involved getting rid of grass by smothering it with layered cardboard, beginning in January 2023. By May of that year the old grass was gone, thanks to lots of hard work and digging, and new plants were in the ground, surrounded with ample mulch. Before summer’s sizzling heat upped the challenge for the new landscape, the corner lot was filled with yellow coreopsis, pink rock rose, purple cone flowers, verbena, and bright red Mexican sunflowers (Tithonia). Two shrubs planted next to a tall fence separating front and back yards are cenizo (Texas sage) and butterfly bush, with more purple blossoms.
Although the original mix of plants included many familiar decorative flowers, Mitchell is turning more to native species that are more drought tolerant. She recently installed six round metal planters to improve water retention from weekly watering for some plants, including red petunias, cellosia or cock’s comb, and marigolds. She included a few raspberry starts, since that’s her fa-
A chaos gardener, trying whatever and seeing what works.
—
Amy Mitchell
Spring Lake Garden Club’s Yard of the Month vorite berry. Still growing in the ground around the planters are golden coreopsis, red Mexican sunflower, lantana, zinnias and feathery leaf dill, which attract Black Swallowtail butterflies. She also added Milkweed to benefit migrating Monarch butterflies.
Another addition to the garden is a set of three houses for carpenter bees, sort of “live-in” pollinators. A neighbor who studies and photographs pollinators has identified several types of carpenter bees and up to three dozen species of butterflies in Mitchell’s new landscape. Unlike termites, carpenter bees do not eat wood, although females bore nest holes in unfinished softwoods. Painted wood and wood sealants discourage boring, and providing nest houses offers lodging to useful pollinators all year round.
Mitchell’s innovative landscape is certainly drought tolerant but not immune to harsh winter weather, which will take its toll on plants still flowering in Texas sunshine. However, native varieties have evolved to regrow from roots or new seeds once warmer days return. December’s bountiful flowers indicate a thriving garden even with only weekend maintenance, and an attractive option to investing mainly in lawns.
