Goodbye mud pit

Okay I lied, most of our backyard is still dirt, but this weekend I put in our second plant bed thus taking another dent out of the mud pit. The main challenge was just figuring out what to do with all the random plants I had accumulated and what to cover the bed with. Ian wanted the crushed granite and after going back and forth I decided to go with mulch to give it some contrast from the patio. It turned out better than I imagined it would! It's interesting, because I wasn't planning on doing any yard work this weekend with threats of Ike's impact on Austin, but when Saturday came and there was no sign or rain or heavy wind, it was really the perfect time to be outside. Really the only impact we had from Ike was about 10 minutes of rain, late Saturday night. Sunday morning was so cool and breezy, being outside was actually enjoyable for mid-September in Texas.

We tried to stay with native plants and finally planted the succlents my mom gave us 4 months ago: 2 aloe veras, 2 spanish daggers, a taller cactus and a pencil cactus that I split into several bunches. I bought some dwarf fountain grass, four-nerve daisy & silver ponyfoot to help fill it out. I'm curious to see what the ponyfoot does since I've never worked with ground cover before and it needs well draining soil. I don't think our Blackland prairie is the best at drainage....

Here are some pics.

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Here's the area between the house and the patio. There used to be a weird tree/bush here that was way too close to the house that Ian removed. This was a problem drainage spot, so now when rain spills over the gutters, it won't pool up here.

Here's a before pic - it's the area on the left.


Barley was my helper this weekend. Although we had to put him inside a few times so he wouldn't run out while the gate was open.