Harrow & Hill
Plan your property

Ridge court

Fourteen acres on a deer-pressed ridge. Limestone terraces, a gravel court, and a plant list the deer already walk past.

Plan your property
A low house beside a caliche court of limestone, agaves, and oaks.

The problem

The west wall took the whole afternoon, and the deer took everything soft.

Three limestone lifts take the slope. The court is compacted gravel, not a slab. Oaks went in small on the west side of the house, and by year ten they shade that wall. The list is twist-leaf yucca, sacahuista, autumn sage, and black dalea. A cistern off the roof is the only water we count on.

Limestone rubble, agaves, and caliche in front of a low house and live oaks.

The site

14 acres in Spicewood.

SoilEckrant. Very shallow, with rock at the surface on the west ridge.
SlopeAbout twelve percent, falling south off the ridge.
WaterOne 10,000-gallon cistern. No spray. Drip through year two, then monthly in a dry summer.
Started2018
Ridge court plan diagram

The plan

Drawn for year ten.

A diagram, not the survey. North is up. The bar is 40 feet.

  • HouseThe west wall is the one the oaks are for.
  • Gravel courtCompacted. No concrete apron.
  • TerracesThree limestone lifts, falling south.
  • West oaksPlanted year 0, as small trees.
  • Cistern10,000 gallons, off the roof.
  • FenceDeer fence through spring of year two.

The same ground

Year 0, year 3, year 10.

A new gravel bed with young agaves and grasses, still open to the soil.
Install day. Gravel, a few plants, and a lot of caliche still showing. Thin on purpose.
Limestone, agaves, and shrubs filling a caliche court under oaks.
The terraces have closed between the walls. Watering has dropped to once a month.
A stone and wood house seen through a closed tree canopy, with sun through the leaves.
The west oaks shade the wall. Summer afternoons on that side of the house are a different room.

Plant list

What we actually specified.

If a plant only lives inside the fence, the list says so. Autumn sage is the one we argue about, and the fence stays up until the second spring.

  • Twist-leaf yuccaYucca rupicolaNone after year one
  • Texas sacahuistaNolina texanaNone after year one
  • Autumn sageSalvia greggiiLow. Deer-resistant, not deer-proof.
  • Black daleaDalea frutescensLow
  • Lindheimer muhlyMuhlenbergia lindheimeriLow
  • Skeleton-leaf goldeneyeViguiera stenolobaLow
  • Mexican buckeyeUngnadia speciosaLow
  • Plateau live oakQuercus fusiformisDeep, infrequent, the first three summers

The work

Scope, money, and the years.

ScopeTerraces, gravel court, cistern, west oaks, and a deer fence through the spring of year two.
Budget$310,000–$420,000 over three seasons. Master plan $28,000.
DurationPlan in 2018. Stone that winter. Plants the following two falls. Stewardship through 2028.

From the owner

The deer walked the terrace and left the salvias. That was the test we had asked for.

HelenSpicewood