At the Mirador Garden, which you'll see on the Austin Fling tour, a dramatic feature greets you as you enter the driveway: slim walls of rusty steel that terrace the contours of the sloping lot. Tiered planting beds bristle with yucca and agave, while billowing native grasses and cascading silver groundcovers do their part to soften the scene. Jerusalem thorn's lemon-yellow flowers stand out against unusual lime-green limbs and trunks. A meadow-like ecological lawn of Habiturf (developed by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center) subs for traditional, thirsty lawn.
Inside a steel-walled courtyard overlooked by the contemporary home, roses, iris, and zinnias give a cheery, casual vibe, but the garden
steers clear of cottage style with an open layout and linear steel-edged beds. A trough-style water feature attracts birds and reflects the big Texas sky. In back, heat-loving Yucca rostrata cluster together like a congregation of hedgehogs, and a vine-draped pergola offers shade.
We hope you'll join us in early May to explore this garden and many others on our three days of garden touring. And if you're already signed up (click here to see the bloggers who have already registered), we'll see you in just a few months!