 The following is a production of New Mexico State University. When George and Lynn Dreer first saw this property, the front yard was an ugly duckling of a landscape. However, the current owner who was selling a house said, you've got to see the backyard. It is a real swan. George and Lynn have worked, and they have turned the front yard into a swan as well. George is going to tell us how he did that. George, there's no way that this landscape can be called an ugly duckling landscape now. What do your neighbors think of this? Well, I think if you go around Lakewood, you'll see that a lot of neighbors have adopted this. Certainly next door has made their garden look very similar to this. In fact, many people think that part of their garden is actually part of my garden, but it's really separate. So it's just an extension of this garden. And this is fairly water-conservative in here too, isn't it? It sure is. It won a zero-scape award from the Dallas Water Department back in 97, as I recall. And while there is a sprinkler system in the garden, we don't use it very much. In fact, I haven't used it. This is what we're filming here now in May, and I haven't had the system on since last September. So, here for the area, it's very well-adapted there. I notice the tree is mulching the landscape. That's right. So there's a lot of live oak leaves here. Live oak leaves, especially in the winters, when most of them fall. And we use that just as a mulch, rather than just sweeping it up and throwing it away. There's a lot of really interesting and well-adapted plants here. I see the yopon, which is a Texas native. Right. That's a dwarf version. Over here, you have a lamium, which is extremely good for dry shade. These crepe myrtles tend to take up most of the moisture, but as you can see, it looks very good, very lush, and it actually blooms in the springtime. It's colorful even when it's not in bloom. That's exactly right. I see the Texas sage here, which is a really good choice. The blue sage. And then I see a lot of annuals that you put in here. Right. You get a lot of color. The love and a mist. And I just let a few of them reseed, and that's it. I don't ever have to, you just plant them one time, and that's good. In fact, I don't really even plant them. I just throw the seed out. And they throw the seed out every year after that. That's it. And you've got a lot of ornamental grasses too. Yeah, I really like those because in the summertime, some of these plants go a little bit dormant because of the heat, and that ornamental grass tends to bulk up the garden and makes it look fuller. That's a good thing. And the crepe myrtles here. That's a nice thing to have. Yeah. Full bloom, short labor. Right. Now it's still beautiful, just with this beautiful bark. There's actually three of them here, and these are intermediate crepe myrtles, so this is about the mature height. Regulars can get up to 40 feet, but these are just going to top out at about 15 feet. This is adequate for this property. Yeah, it's perfect for this. The preceding was a production of New Mexico State University. The views and opinions in this program are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent the views and opinions of the NMSU Board of Regents.