If you’ve been enjoying the backyard recently, you may have noticed that along with all the lush greens and thick grass comes some serious maintenance, along with an excess of watering. It takes time to water your grass by hand, working around the inevitable water restrictions that are bound to come along. Having extra water around your patio and plants also means having extra thirsty bugs, like mosquitoes. All those bites make it enough to decide that this is the summer to make SAWS, and yourself, proud by creating a space with a low water threshold. Win, win!
Research on native plants
Kick off your landscape improvement plan with a little bit of research on native plants that thrive in your type of soil. We like to turn to the professionals at Desert to Tropics Nursery to help us with this very thing. Besides offering nearly 100 types of low-water plants for indoors and outdoors, they also deliver to Austin, Houston, San Antonio, the Texas Hill Country & Waco, making them the Amazon Prime of nurseries, and we’re here for it! Seeing all the various species of prickly wonders available at the nursery will have you drafting garden blueprints in your dreams.
Type of Soil
If you really want to feel like a professional landscaper, you can go an extra step and send a plug of dirt from your lawn off to a soil lab. It’s one thing to think a succulent is pretty, but it’s another thing to keep that baby alive.
The soil lab can tell you the pH and other helpful information about your dirt that will save those prickly pears from shriveling up into sad little cacti ghosts.
Decorate your Landscape
Another simple way to lower water usage while still having an Instagram-worthy yard would be to add rocks to the terrain. Add small rocks and large rocks to help you direct the water flow of rainfall, and be in charge of your own topography by “building” various heights of rocks and textures. You can get as fancy as you want by “upgrading” some simple white limestone rocks to some sparkly crushed granite or colorful and smooth river rock.
While you’re putting in all this effort, don’t forget about the neighborhood pollinators! The bees need pollen, and you can still provide them with a sweet snack by planting pollinator and water-friendly plants like salvia dorrii, or Desert Purple Sage. You’ll see pretty pops of color in your desert oasis, but you’ll also help all creatures of our Texas ecosystem at the same time.
Putting in the effort this summer on a project that will protect you long term is exactly the kind of thing we do too. SOGO is here to put in the effort to protect your home from the other kinds of disasters by providing homeowners insurance and other personal insurances like renter’s insurance and condo insurance. Contact us to discuss coverage, and get busy enjoying the fruits of your low-water landscape while you’re at it.
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