Our Approach

Our Mission

At Native Son Gardens our mission is to return Austin’s urban landscapes back into the broader ecosystem they’ve been cut from using sustainable landscaping practices and a plant-centered approach. By creating novel plant communities inspired by our unique Central Texas landscape we can improve our soils, fill our aquifers, give food and shelter to our local wildlife, and create gorgeous yards that inspire us to get outside and enjoy our slice of Texas paradise.

We approach landscaping from a radical new direction. The old ideas of the suburban landscape—endless green carpets and static evergreen shrubs—added little and required lots in the way of resources. Instead of filling space with lawn, we create plant communities modeled on our native green belt areas and inspired by Ladybird Johnson’s beautiful Wildflower Center. Native meadows of low-water, drought-tolerant ornamental grasses and wildflowers create sustainable ecosystems in the full sun where lawns would flourish. Under the sprawling oaks of west and central Austin, shade plants like those that grow around our creeks and wooded areas create lush gardens perfect for intimate sitting areas.

The resource intensive yards of the past are not sustainable, so we ask - what if your yard felt less like a “yard”, and more like an extension of our beautiful natural ecosystem?

What do you want from your yard? What would you do if you spent less time maintaining it and more time enjoying it? What if instead of cutting your lawn every week, you only had to cut back your plants once a year? The American—and yes, the Austin—landscape of the future needs to look very different than it has in the past. Our goal is to help move us in that direction, one yard at a time.

Sustainable practices

We love designing spaces that serve us as well as our furred and feathered friends. We also employ sustainable techniques during installation for an earth-friendly approach, one that keeps your yard looking great long-term.

For example, one of the most common questions we get is how to prevent or control weeds. The industry is filled with weed fabric and plant-killing chemicals. We use these only to control aggressive and invasive species like bermuda grass. But plants will always grow where there is space, even in the mulch on top of weed fabric! Instead we like to plant things we actually want! That means a more layered and dense planting style that leaves less room for weeds and matures into a lush garden bursting with texture and color.

Services

Landscape Design

When it comes to design, we love natural, native, and balanced gardens based around your lifestyle. There are many factors to consider: sun and soil; seating and gathering areas; kids, dogs, cats, lizards, and any other animal friends; play and shade;…When all these elements work in harmony that old green box of a yard can become a retreat back into nature.

Hardscaping

Every great yard needs a balance of landscape and hardscape. Thinking through drainage needs, pathways, gathering and eating spaces, recreation areas, and utility areas is key to creating an outdoor space that can serve any lifestyle.

With all the great natural resources in Central Texas like our limestone and lueder pavers and crushed granite for pathways and driveways, blending the soft with the hard can be kept native.

Native Meadows

Using a mix of potted plants and seeds, we can turn your property into a naturalistic setting criss-crossed by winding paths where you will find hidden nooks and open areas to sit and relax in, host gatherings, or warm by the firepit.

By installing a native meadow, we can help you return your yard to nature and let it begin to give back instead of take away from our local ecosystem.

Planting

When it comes to plants our focus is on…you guessed it—native plants! Texas shares native plant ecosystems with North Mexico, the prairies of the Great Plains, and even regions in Canada, meaning we have a wide swath of plants to choose from. But there is often room for adapted plants as well, and we love to include non-invasive adapted plants into our landscapes.

With our gardens we like to flip the old thinking of using lawn as a space filler—like flooring for your yard—to a more holistic (and dare we say beautiful?) approach. After identifying where the useable spaces are—be it hardscape or yes, even lawn—we then fill all the blank space with dense plantings that will begin to stitch your private retreat back into the surrounding ecosystem.

Lawn Replacement

Did you know that there are 40 million acres of lawn in U.S., which makes up 2% of the total land area? That’s more than all of the paved area combined. And all of those acres of lawn use 20 trillion gallons of water every single year. To put that into perspective, all crops in the U.S. use 30 trillion gallons per year.

That’s why it’s not our first choice to install lawns, and we’d much rather help you choose beautiful blends of hardscaping and native plant landscaping to create a more sustainable yard.

However, if a lawn makes the most sense for your space, we can still help. We just do it in a more sustainable way by:

Putting in smaller lawns - only the size you actually need, even if that’s a full-scale soccer field!
Making them lower maintenance - simple shapes that are easy to maintain and thus use less gas and energy.
Placing the lawn in full sun to lower water and fertilizer consumption.