Austin Project - Waterwise Landscape

Dearest Family,

Sorry it has taken so long to post! I kept thinking I would have a picture of the finished product, but I'm realizing that transitioning my front yard to a Waterwise landscape is going to be an ongoing project :). The winter storm two years ago was really hard on our ash trees in the front yard. They were ending their life anyway, and with the harsh (for Texas) winter conditions they never recovered. Without the shade from the trees, our St. Augustine grass was dying off. 

The city of Austin has a rebate for homeowners that turn their turf grass into Waterwise landscape, so I applied and received approval to start the project.

First, we covered the grass with large sheets of plastic to solarize (kill off the grass and weeds). Ideally, we would have done this in the middle of the summer, but the rebate program has specific date requirements. We left the plastic on for four weeks (wish we could have kept it there for a few more weeks, but we didn't have much time left before the completion deadline).

A friend helped me till up the remaining grass one weekend, and we had some dirt and mulch delivered from a local landscape company. I slowly worked on putting down weed barrier and then the mulch. Thankfully, the city gave me an extension until the end of November to finish getting the mulch down. I planted two trees and some of the plants and will plant (or transplant) the others in the spring.

Spencer is enjoying the new path and walking around on the mulch is giving him lots of opportunities to practice his balancing skills. He still loves to be outside and sometimes sat in the stroller while I was working (he wasn't feeling too good at the time). I'll include a few pictures of him so you can see how much he has grown!

This weekend I'm planning to add a metal border to the side of the front yard that we share with our neighbor. Eventually, I'd like to have a border all the way around. I look forward to sharing updated pictures with you as I get more plants in.

Happy Holidays to everyone! May you and your families be healthy and have lots of occasions to laugh and smile this Christmas and New Years!

Sending love from Austin,

Hannah