@stone @sallyg
@NursSpecAtHCWGCTX, Your screen name suggests you work for Hill Country Water Gardens and Nursery? Wow! You have tremendous resources available to you: Trees, shrubs, and herbaceous plants of all kinds, hardscaping materials, decorative accessories, and best of all a solid business reputation!
Maybe you could leverage those assets to entice your client to expand their concept from "a bed" to "an oasis in a courtyard"?
It wouldn't have to cost a lot more. It could be programmed for expansion and filling over time.
It could start with clearing out the grass in the whole area as
@stone suggested. It's parched and shabby looking. It's high maintenance. The ground could simply be mulched for now.
As Sally envisioned, a small tree or tree-form shrub on the left, set close to the front walk but with room to grow, could provide a viewpoint from the house. Maybe one that flowers for seasonal interest, and possibly fragrance. One of the nursery's weeping redbuds? A Texas mountain laurel? A Chinese fringetree? (I'd say a native fringetree but I'm not sure it would be refined enough). If it's deciduous, some tiny white lights on the bare branches would create a festive feel in winter.
The mulched area surrounding it could be planted with the herbaceous plants from the existing bed. Not in a dot-dash red-green single file. Instead, clustered in small drifts by color, creating a mosaic on the ground. Eventually perhaps a very low evergreen ground cover could create a verdant floor between the other plants to carpet the oasis. Sally was suggesting something like this too.
What could be better than to come home to than an oasis on a blistering summer day?
Did the owners especially want the froggy statuary? It could go on the house side of the small tree, so it faces the house window. Plant something evergreen that's just tall enough to provide a background for it, between the statue and the tree. Now the clients will really like the view from the house.
Otherwise, try to swap something else into the courtyard for decor. A substantial stone planter of coordinating sandstone color on the right side could be attractive.
Keep the right side simple and the plantings low, 3' or under. Picture a semi-formal arrangement of the planter with 3 low shrubs on each side. A bed of annuals or perennials in front for additional color. The planter filled with tallish, showy and colorful plants. Now there's a view from the other window.
And now people have something to see (and inhale?) when they walk from the driveway toward the house - a total distraction from the downspout (which has been obscured anyway by something low-growing near it). And they also won't notice the shoddy work at the rooflines on the left of the lovely arched window left of the door.
Speaking of the door, the builder went cheap on the walk, as builders usually do. It should have been as wide as the porch floor, to feel expansive and welcoming instead of crowded and constricting. I'd want to think about whether some creative use of neutral pavers on the edges could broaden it. I'd be sure to move those protruding rock edgers out of the way of the porch landing! They're a tripping/falling hazard. They'd be gone anyway if the beds are reworked. The edgers (all of them) could be incorporated somewhere else, preferably unobtrusive because the contrasting color attracts the eye too much.
All the plant choices should be native or climate-adapted so they won't need routine irrigation after they're established. But they would preferably be as lush as possible, not the Arizona Arid look.
On the the right side as far out as possible from the house a tree could be planted that will grow tall enough to provide a setting. Maybe a Mexican white oak, limbed high as it grows? It will visually set the house back from the street and eventually make it look sheltered.
@stone has valuable experience to share. Ask yourself - what is the purpose of those shrubs in front of the windows? To grow up and block out the light and the view? To make window cleaning impossible? My landscape designer professor said windows are for letting in light and seeing the view. If there's no view? Create one.
The current beds are not deep enough to allow the plants that are in them to grow and, even more important, to allow getting between them and the wall for maintenance. Three feet of clearance with nothing but mulch (or foot-tolerant groundcover plants) are really needed in every bed next to a building but Americans don't seem to get that. You have a chance to educate them.
Those tiny beds hugging the walls look stifled. The plantings are busy, yet have no impact.
Set the plants free. Let them breathe into the space! Encourage your client to imagine coming home to a feeling of luxury that is more about creativity than cost. Their entry could set an example that viewers will want to follow... to your company's doorstep.
Pat
P.S. Speaking of assets, the Zilker Botanical Garden appears to be a treasure! It's a reference collection of specimens in situ. It's an inspiration for ways to use the plants. And it has numerous educational programs including one created for landscape professionals as part of their larger "Grow Green" initiative. I'm awed by all it offers!
https://www.austintexas.gov/de...
P.P.S. I learned from their site that oak wilt can be an issue in some Austin-area sites. So I don't know if the Mexican wild oak would be a good choice here. Something to consider.
