In the beginning…

Our backyard was basically a half-acre, perfectly square, BLOCK-O-GRASS.

Technically it was a lawn. Emotionally it was an open field with commitment issues.

When we decided to build the pool, we also started looking at the surrounding landscape differently. While waiting FOR-EV-ER for construction to begin — well, it seemed like an eternity at the time — we found ourselves staring out at this giant green rectangle every day imagining what it could become.

At some point, we realized the grass was just not gonna cut it (haha) we decided it was finally time to “merk the turf” — which, for anyone unfamiliar with the phrase, basically means the grass had to go.

We wanted more than just a sad little lawn slowly baking away in the Texas heat. We wanted movement. Pollinators. Texture. Water. Wildlife. Something that felt alive and constantly evolving instead of flat and static.

The few bees we rarely saw were, quite frankly, also not impressed.

And that’s when the merking began.

I wanted THIS asthetic…

⤊ Future Plant Casualties ⤊

Tropical Dreams vs Native Reality

At the beginning, I was very anti-native plants.

In my mind, “native landscaping” meant rocks, cactus, tumbleweeds, and a yard that looked like it belonged somewhere in Arizona instead of coastal Texas 😄

My husband, on the other hand, has always been more of the conservation-minded type, while I lean heavily toward lush tropical plants and anything that makes me feel like I live at a beach resort.

Since he usually lets me have my way, we compromised and planted a mix of both.

Then winter arrived… and almost ALLof my tropicals died.

His native plants, meanwhile, survived and flourished like absolutely nothing had happened.

Unfortunately for me, this gave him entirely too much confidence 😄

Around the same time, he started pointing out things I had honestly never thought much about before — how few bees we saw, the fact that we never really heard frogs at night, and the complete absence of lightning bugs despite living out in the country.

Once I started noticing it too, it completely changed the way I looked at the landscape.

Now we focus primarily on native and pollinator-friendly planting, while my tropical favorites live in containers that can be moved into the greenhouse during colder months.

So I guess the lesson here is:
you should probably trust a man wearing a shirt that says,

“If you were a plant, I’d remember your name.”

At the time, I mostly just saw landscape fabric and chaos. My husband, somehow, already saw habitat. 🤍

Continue the story → Landscape Fabric & Ambition 🌿