At night: low-voltage uplights casting cactus and agave shadows on a brick wall above a river rock bed

Project · Oakwell Farms, San Antonio

Oakwell Farms Xeriscape & Landscape Lighting

A homeowner in Oakwell Farms, near Castle Hills, was done fighting her grass. We swapped it for an easy-care rock garden with drought-tolerant plants, a mini dry creek bed and landscape lighting.

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Call (210) 850-5329

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Veteran-ownedMilitary discipline on every job

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Free estimatesWritten quote after we see your yard

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Built to lastProper base prep, edging and grading

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Clean job sitesCleaned up daily, gates closed

The goal

The homeowner was tired of dealing with grass. She wanted a yard that was easy to maintain and still looked good from the street. We suggested a xeriscape look, with rock, boulders and drought-tolerant plants in place of the grass, plus landscape lighting so the beds would look just as good after dark.

The design

Before anything was dug, we drew the plan by hand: boulders, river rock and a band of beach pebble, with barrel cactus, fence post cactus and agave placed around them. It isn’t a glossy rendering, but it’s the real plan for this yard.

Oakwell Farms has an HOA, so we submitted the design for approval first. Once it was approved, we got to work.

Hand-drawn xeriscape plan on graph paper showing the layout of boulders, river rock and plants for the bed — Joe’s hand-drawn plan for the bed, drawn before the HOA submittal

What we installed

Landscape fabric under the rock to keep weeds down
River rock as the main ground cover
Black Mexican beach pebble for contrast against the lighter river rock
Limestone boulders as natural accents
Drought-tolerant plants, including barrel cactus, fence post cactus, agave and prickly pear
A mini dry creek bed for drainage
Low-voltage landscape lighting
Tan decomposed granite in the narrow side yard

Limestone boulders and golden barrel cactus set in river rock beside a brick wall, with low-voltage light fixtures — Limestone boulders and barrel cactus

Narrow side yard between a brick home and a wood fence finished in tan decomposed granite — Side yard finished in tan decomposed granite

Drainage

Rain has to go somewhere. We built a mini dry creek bed into the design so water has a rock-lined path to follow. On dry days it simply reads as part of the landscape.

Mini dry creek bed of black Mexican beach pebble running through tan river rock beside a sidewalk, with a fence post cactus and variegated agave — The mini dry creek bed: black Mexican beach pebble channels water along the bed instead of letting it pool

Have a spot where water collects or washes out? See our drainage solutions.

Lighting

Low-voltage uplights sit at the base of the agave and cactus. After dark they light the plants and throw their shadows up the brick wall, so the yard has a second look at night.

At night: an agave shadow on a brick wall, with uplit limestone boulders and barrel cactus in the foreground — Agave shadow on the wall, boulders and barrel cactus lit from below

At night: a fence post cactus and agave uplit in a river rock and black beach pebble bed — Fence post cactus and agave uplit at night

Before & after

Before: overgrown grass and weeds in a side bed between a brick home, a wooden gate and the sidewalk — Before: grass and weeds along the side of the house

Before: grass strip by the Oakwell Farms entry sign, with marking flags laid out for the new design — Before: the grass strip by the neighborhood sign, flagged for the new layout

During: landscape fabric laid along a brick wall with river rock and limestone boulders going in — During: fabric down, boulders and river rock going in

After: xeriscape bed along a brick home and sidewalk with black Mexican beach pebble bands through river rock, agave and cactus — After: black Mexican beach pebble bands through river rock

The result: a low-maintenance oasis the homeowner fell in love with.

More about this kind of work

Tired of fighting your grass?

Tell us what you have in mind. We’ll come out, look at the space and give you a free written estimate.

Get a Free Estimate

Call (210) 850-5329