THE DOGRUN

In November of 2011 friends helped Cameron and I completely replant our yard with native landscape. The design was drawn up by Hocker Design Group using entirely native plants known to be found within roughly a 50 mile radius of San Antonio. We focused on plants found to the drier west as an indication of what the future may hold for San Antonio’s climate. So out went the st. augustine grass and in went the buffalo grass; out went the crape myrtles and in went the beautiful (but prickly) cat claw acacias. We anticipated a beautiful new water wise landscape, but we did not imagine how much the new plants would affect the yards environment. An entirely new ecosystem has showed up in the yard in the past year. In the previous years we had the occasional bug or bird come visit. Now we suddenly had entire generations of gulf fritillary butterflies growing up in the yard along with bees, rhinoceros beetles, and anole lizards. We look forward to see what year two holds.   L:Cat Claw Acacia R:Standing Cypress   L:Gulf Fritillary Caterpillar R:Gulf Fritillary Butterfly   Purple Lace Cactus   L: Moth R: Anole Lizard on a Texas Persimmon   Wildflower Meadow in Full Bloom