XeriscapeBy Pat Gibson May 1987 |
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A few years ago, when city water became scarce or at least extremely expensive, people began to study ways to save water around the home. One of the biggest water users for most city home owners is the landscaping around the house.
Here in Central Texas , the rains will provide for lush lawns in the spring and sometimes in the fall, but if you want a deep green lawn through the summer, you have to water heavily. To conserve our dwindling water supply, many folks have suggested a plan of planting called Xeriscape. The term comes from the scientific term xeric which means "requiring only a small amount of water."
When you try to plant like this, you put in cactus, native shrubs, native grasses and lots of rocks. Actually, you don't have to put the rocks in your yard, around here they come free of charge. The whole point of the planting is to have growing things that don't require much water and can take our weather extremes. Out here in the country, if you have a lot the developer didn't scalp, it is pretty easy to have a native yard, you just let it grow. That is what we have done here above Sulfur Creek.
We thought about having a lawn at one time, but concern that we would pump our well dry changed those plans. We have mowed the native grasses enough that they look like a lawn, except in the spring when we let the wild flowers grow.
We have Mexican persimmon, agarita, Virginia creeper, wild grapes and cat claw for the middle level of plants. Our trees have gotten pretty good sized around the house. We have white mulberry, Ash, and several kinds of oak. As the crew has grown older, they have stopped picking all the wild flowers and the wine cups were beautiful this year. We always have a mass of Indian blankets and tall prairie larkspur. There are about four different kinds of grass growing on our place. We're not sure what to call them, but they are almost all welcome. The sticker grass could die out and I would not be sad at all. The same goes for the wild carrots which some folks call beggars ticks or Queen Ann's lace. Stickery seeds may spread the plant well, but they wreak havoc with the laundry.
Spring has returned and the birds are nesting all along Sulfur Creek. We have baby sparrows at the bird feeder and wrens in the clothes pin bag, but that's another story.
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