These Austin, Texas, homeowners have daughters in elementary and middle schools, and they wanted to create more usable space in their steeply sloped backyard to encourage outdoor play. They also wanted space for entertaining their friends.
José Roberto Corea of Austin Outdoor Design transformed the yard into a series of outdoor rooms featuring a pool, a spa, an outdoor shower, a fire table lounge, a play area, a renovated two-story porch and a pergola-covered dining and grilling area. At the same time, he preserved several existing live oak trees. The result is a cohesive, beautifully terraced modern yard that the whole family and their friends enjoy.
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“This is a shady garden and naturalistic play space. I wanted to add shade-tolerant plants with lots of textures and different-colored leaves,” Prassas says. “These include ferns, hostas, grasses and sumacs that make it more interesting for the kids. Another plant I included is witch hazel, which flowers when nothing else is flowering.” The witch hazel species he planted is Autumn Embers vernal witch hazel (Hamamelis vernalis ‘Autumn Embers’, zones 4 to 8).
Woody plants Passas added to the garden include ‘Little Henry’ Virginia sweetspire (Itea virginica ‘Little Henry’, zones 5 to 9), cutleaf staghorn sumac (Rhus typhina ‘Laciniata’, zones 3 to 8), Snowmound spirea (Spiraea nipponica ‘Snowmound’, zones 3 to 8), bottlebrush buckeye (Aesculus parviflora, zones 4 to 8) and a variety of hydrangeas.
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