Hitting all the notes at Piano Rock garden

Let’s tour an Austin garden on a bluff overlooking green hills, with shade and sun gardens and a stone overlook.… Read More

The post Hitting all the notes at Piano Rock garden appeared first on Digging.

February 02, 2026

Last fall I visited a west Austin garden on a bluff overlooking green hills and a winding, rocky creek. Designed by landscape architect Curt Arnette of Sitio Design, the garden subtly echoes the view with a bermed zoysia lawn studded with limestone boulders. “The mounding captures the hills and draws them in,” Curt says.

Curt united clusters of live oaks in the center of the yard into one large shade garden. A wide stepping-stone path meanders through, offering access and a garden stroll. For the understory, tufts of sedge and masses of cast-iron plant add easy-care greenery, punctuated by dwarf palmetto and yaupon holly.

A side view reveals grassy ribbons running through the garden: giant liriope, Berkeley sedge, and variegated ‘Feather Falls’. Lyre-leaf sage and spiderwort are here too for seasonal color.

At the path entrance, a graceful, scroll-like chunk of limestone stands on end as a natural sculptural element. “That curvy stone was already on the property, lying down, and we stood it up,” says Curt.

A rolling section of the lawn flows toward the view of the hills. Large limestone boulders also draw the eye in that direction.

I bet they’d be fun for kids to climb on.