By Denise Crane

In my planning for what to grow in our yard here in Texas, I have finally started to crack the code on what to consider. There are lots of things that landscape architects and master gardeners go to school to learn, a nearly overwhelming amount of information about growing things on the internet (surprise!), and the subtle pressure of making sure you don’t grow anything that disrupts the appearance of the neighborhood, so no one complains to the HOA. The grass in our front yard developed some sort of fungus or grub last year that killed off a lot of it, and I was sorely tempted to just let it go to weed and wildflowers, but resisted the urge because I don’t want the letter from a potentially disapproving HOA committee. 

It’s also important to know your area’s hardiness zone. I was moderately amazed at the number of plants shown in local stores and gardening centers that sell lots and lots of plants that are unlikely to survive year to year (even if they are perennials) because anything below 10 degrees will kill them. Even in this part of Texas, we get nights less than 10 degrees. It reminds me to pay attention to my own hardiness zone and avoid too many things that push those boundaries.

Grass notwithstanding, I have found that I have ended up developing a set of personal principles around how I choose plants, and I suspect they are personal for everyone. 

When I am out walking my dog Nikki or when I am traveling about town for various purposes, I notice that lots of yards get a regular rotation of color, and that, with the right planning and investment, colors other than green can happen all year around in our area. It does make the curb appeal rise for the landscape, and it keeps the local landscaping companies busy replacing plants all year round. I figured out that those decisions are sometimes made based on whether the plant with color is annual or perennial, and sometimes just made so someone has color in spots all year around regardless of how much water it needs or how often it has to be changed out. I seem to fall into the category of “I live in a place that is dry and hot, I don’t want to consume more water than necessary, so if the color isn’t “dead brown”, I’m okay if it is only green.” I do have a bit of color around usually, it just isn’t mandatory for me.

I am a fan of yards full of perennials. It seems difficult to me to replace plants each year that thrive for a brief period and then have to be pulled out. There is something about the nature of things coming back each year that gives comfort to my inner landscape. I have no issue with people who want to plant annual color each year. I just lean to perennials. I have a new favorite that I am coaching in an area of the yard that used to get mostly full sun. As the trees along that area (one a magnificent magnolia that my husband put in for me on a long ago Mother’s Day) have matured, the area gets less and less sun. I found this purple plant that can just be planted from broken off pieces of a parent plant and it will root. I was even encouraged once at a gardening store not to buy the plant because it self-roots so easily! We pass a couple of places during our walk where I can often find pieces that have been trimmed-back by landscapers, knocked off by animal interlopers, or maybe shed by the parent plant to expand the family. It’s establishing quite nicely and turns out it comes back each year. It has the sweetest little purple flowers, and I am beginning to see bees hanging about them. 

Pollinators are another important consideration for me for planting. A couple of years ago we planted a couple of butterfly bushes (guess what – perennials!) and when they bloom each spring the bees and butterflies always find their way there and hang out. I also found I can keep splitting off my lantana from its original plant, and it keeps expanding its family as well. Bees and butterflies hang out there also and it is colorful all summer.

Did I mention I like bees and butterflies? I think they just remind me of how interconnected life is.