BOLT Landscape Design

A garden refresh doesn’t have to mean a huge budget. This Austin yard backs up to a beautiful stretch of greenbelt, so the goal here was simple. Work with the setting, add layers, and use plants that can handle Central Texas climate challenges.

We’re starting by filling the space with flats of 4-inch Texas native and adapted perennials. Smaller plants keep the cost down and, with regular attention, will eventually knit together into a full, natural-looking planting that blends right into the surrounding landscape.

And then there’s my favorite part. This chicken showed up one day, decided this was home, and never left. No one knows exactly where she came from, but she’s clearly living her best life patrolling the garden beds and supervising the planting.

Sometimes the best garden features are the ones you never planned.

Still watching ice storm ice melt off my Austin driveway while it’s 74°, sunny, and shorts weather. This is Texas. If you garden here, you know. Not for the weak.