A San Antonio Property Is More About the Drought-Resistant Yard Than the Tiny Home It Surrounds

In 2023, Central Texas endured its second driest summer on record, for the second year in a row. Rivers and lakes dried up, once-green lawns turned crunchy and brown, and even native plants withered, unaccustomed to the new reality of record-breaking heat.

But at least one yard in the region thrived throughout the scourge. Toward the end of a street in San Antonio’s Terrell Hills neighborhood, so close to Fort Sam Houston military base that you can hear "Taps" played each afternoon as the flag is lowered, Don Doughtery and Karin Scott’s freshly landscaped yard withstood the conditions with surprising vigor.

In both its design and its resilience against harsh conditions, Don and Karin’s yard is distinctly Texan: By late October, amid summer’s last gasp of heat, a group of paloverde trees, planted just months earlier, had grown so full they looked like bushes. An aboveground planter, supplied with a drip-irrigation system, was overflowing with enough basil to supply a restaurant. And a sprawling heritage live oak tree—the lot’s centerpiece and the reason Don purchased the property six years prior—stood tall and verdant, an outlier compared with the scores of trees nearby.