Garden of the Month: A corner of their own

Paul and Donna Liu’s north Modesto front yard was like many in the Valley – lawn, thirsty shrubs, functional but boring walkway.

After four years of drought, the couple decided to change that last spring and all but leveled to start from scratch.

Their efforts garnered the landscape at 909 Sylvan Meadows Drive Garden of the Month honors for May from the Modesto Garden Club.

Gone now are the lawn, an elevated mound and its palm tree, liquidambars, various shrubbery and the straight-to-the-door walkway. The lot was cleared then leveled to limit runoff water waste. Once done, the only vestige of the remaining yard was a single Chinese pistache.

The goal was to create a front yard on their corner lot that was both unique and attractive with a variety of heat- and drought-tolerant trees and shrubs.

The functional but nondescript front walkway was replaced with a curved path that still leads from the sidewalk to the front entry but also splits off, weaving through the yard to the driveway and side street.

Another Chinese pistache was planted along with October glory maple, golden spirit smoke, lacy leaf maple and Japanese maple. Several types of evergreen shrubs, blue fescue grasses and flowering plants add color and texture.

Brilliant orange African daisies and wallflower provide an eye-catching scape along with freesias that somehow survived the earlier leveling process and made a surprise appearance right before Easter. Large boulders and river rock were brought in for interest in a few locations.

The landscape requires little maintenance and is designed to save water.

Planted just a year ago, the Lius’ plan now is to allow and encourage the shrubs to grow into larger, more natural shapes, filling in any currently open areas.

This story was originally published May 3, 2016 at 3:41 PM with the headline "Garden of the Month: A corner of their own."