i don't think i ever thought i'd enjoy sod and trees. that's old lady gardener stuff.
au contraire mon frere! hubby and i are currently obsessing over trees and shrubs and sod, oh my!
before we delve into the big wide world of flora, these are the latest house photos from the weekend. they are putting up drywall this week, i can't wait to see it.
with siding, windows, shingles, frame, plumbing, electric, and driveway complete
you can kind of see our brick and limestone off to the side too.
the second floor viewed from our master bedroom
starting from the front left, going clockwise... the large space is the loft and the back room is the guest room. to the right of that are the guest room and office closets. you can kind of see the office in the middle right. you can barely see the corner of the guest bathtub. then comes the guest bathroom, master walk-in closet, master bathroom, and where i'm standing, the master bedroom. oh, and the staircase is to the left of the loft. i guess this would be easier to envision if you click on the actual picture so it's blown up.
the first floor viewed from the garage
once more, starting from the front left and going clockwise... directly in front of me is the living room. the back left is a guest room (liz already called dibbs). to the right of that is the first floor bathroom. then comes the kitchen and the space in the middle far right is the dining room. again with the blowing up thing...
the first floor viewed from the garage numero dos
the back left corner is the kitchen and the area with the windows is the dining room. then the staircase and front door.
moving along.
the yard is going to come with bermuda sod in the front and sides, but we are responsible for sodding the backyard.
we are torn on bermuda and st. augustine. i prefer bermuda because i think it's softer under your feet and it requires less water. on the other hand, we visited a friend's house who has half bermuda and half st.augustine in his backyard and the st. augustine was still green and lovely under the trees. the bermuda was brown. is winter green worth the coarse texture? any additional thoughts on these?
as for trees, it took me about 4 hours on sunday morning to compile a list of trees that met our needs:
- austin native
- hypoallergenic
- non-toxic
my austin native list began courtesy of the city's
grow green book- i highly recommend it! it's free at pretty much any nursery and it very very helpful. the website is equally good. so the austin native list was about 40 trees, short trees, and shrubs. then i had to take out all of the trees that would cause allergy problems (cedar should just be BANNED from the united states) and then the trees that would endanger my pup if ingested. we ended up with 9 options when it was said and done. our current favorites are...
a crepe myrtle in the back corner
{ photo from bexar-tx.tamu.edu }
and a bigtooth maple off to the side in the backyard
{ photo from bearspringsblossom.org }
we're researching some options for an evergreen tree to put on the opposite side of the backyard from the maple. by evergreen, i mean one that will remain green and leafy throughout the year, even in the winter. i like mountain laurels.
we also want some cypress-ish shrub-ish plants to put along the fence of the backyard to add a bit of privacy. the arborist i work with recommended arborvitae. any other native recommendations? again with the non-toxic and moderately hypoallergenic thing.