Yard transformed into a low-water oasis
Drought-tolerant plants, stone and gravel add color, character to New Braunfels couple’s home
NEW BRAUNFELS — While planning their move from Orange County, Calif., to Texas in 2019, Dan Mikiewicz and Kay Johnson knew they wanted land, lots of land. And they didn’t want to be fenced in.
But when they found a house they loved on 1.7 acres in the New Braunfels neighborhood of Copper Ridge, they also realized they wanted a couple of other things, too. They wanted a landscape of drought-tolerant plants that, as close as possible, would mimic the greenery of their former home; a backyard structure where they could cook, dine and entertain; and an open, unfenced yard so they could enjoy the expansiveness that was so unlike where they used to live.
“More than anything we liked the property because in California you don’t get land like this,” said Johnson, who works part time for a local builder. “In California, you live on top of one another.”
The couple hired Cooper Henk of Skyline Landscaping to redo the lot. When they moved, it had little more than a narrow strip of grass surrounding the house, a smattering of foundation plants and some native mountain cedar and cactus.
The job, which Henk started almost as soon as the couple began unpacking, required bringing in almost two dozen types of native and naturalized plants, and 375 tons of stone and topsoil. The work, including designing and building the pavilion, cost approximately $65,000 and took two months to complete.
The result is a yard unlike any other in the neighborhood.
There is plenty of hardscape, including stone pavers, gravel pathways and limestone bricks that define different areas of the yard. It also teems with hundreds of individual plants — from bicolor iris and Spanish lavender to Mexican feather grass, red oak, Gulf muhly grass and more — that require little water and would be familiar to most South Texas gardeners.
While a large portion of what Henk initially planted had to be replaced after being lost during the 2021 deep freeze, the landscape promises to grow into a lush garden in the coming years.
“People are always stopping and telling us how much they love our yard,” Johnson said.
In the front of the house, Henk planted Bermuda turf, numerous native grasses and several small bushes and trees. He also built a bed in the center of the lawn outlined with white limestone bricks and neutral river rock. Inside the bed, a welcoming pair of Adirondack chairs are bookended by a crepe myrtle and a live oak tree.
“Everything you see here, in the front and back, is droughttolerant,” Henk said, “which is a good thing if we don’t get some rain soon.”
The lot’s thin, rocky soil makes planting difficult, so Henk trucked in soil to build several berms throughout the yard to give the new plantings, especially the trees, enough room for their roots. The berms also provide visual interest on the mostly flat lot.
The couple say it took them a while to appreciate the difference in landscape options between California and Texas.
“In California we had a pool, palm trees. It was very tropical, like at a resort,” Johnson said. “Here, it’s a learning curve, trying to find things that work.”
The centerpiece of the backyard is the covered pavilion Henk designed and built. Measuring 18 feet by 24 feet, it has a peaked roof with Douglas fir beams, a tongue-and-groove ceiling and a fireplace with limestone veneer.
“We wanted a separate outdoor area for gatherings,” Johnson said. “In California, our house was the party house. We’re hoping to bring that same feel here.”
With two of their four children and several family friends having already moved to the area from California, the pavilion and the backyard get plenty of use.
Elsewhere in the backyard, there are several unusual plants, including a large weeping willow tree.
“I was with my neighbor at a nursery and she was like, ‘Oh, we used to have one of those in Colorado,’ ” Johnson said. “It looked like a Charlie Brown tree with maybe three branches.”
Despite Henk’s misgivings because willows require a lot of water, the tree is flourishing, its long branches falling like green tendrils.
She also insisted on keeping several of the mountain cedars in the backyard.
“Cooper was like, ‘They use a lot of water,’ ” she recalled. “I told him I understood all that, but they’re big and they stay green all year. Because that’s hard when everything loses its leaves and looks so barren. So I talked him into it.”
Henk initially used mulch to create a pathway, but over time, the mulch broke down and was washed away by rainstorms and weeds started growing through it. So last year, he returned to replace it with limestone gravel bordered by decorative rock.
There was also enough native stone on site that he was able to build a stone wall about 3 feet high and 80 feet long.
The couple say that coming from California, they’re enjoying the quiet and spaciousness of their new home, where they can sit outside in the evenings and enjoy, as the song goes, the starry skies above.