Big land, planted right.
Acreage asks for a different kind of design: trees that will read from the road in ten years, privacy that grows instead of being built, and gardens close to the house that still feel finished on day one. These are a few of our favorite properties, from estates in The Woodlands to a ranch in Conroe, ten acres in Friendswood and a country house in La Grange.
01 · Ten acres at the front of The Woodlands.
McDonald Road · The Woodlands · 10 acres
A new French-country home on ten wooded acres. The client asked for symmetry and curves, so the foundation beds sweep around the house in matching arcs, edged in dry-stacked limestone block raised beds, with a pink rose border and an Emerald zoysia lawn.
We also designed the service entrance and a winding gravel drive through the trees, so the whole property reads as one plan from the road to the front door.
Dry-stacked curvy raised beds sweep around the front of the house.
Matching curved beds on each side of the entry, planted for depth and symmetry.
parking options for parties all trees geo sited in!
Columnar evergreens and a gravel path frame the side entrance.
Foundation beds curve along the arched windows, with an Emerald zoysia lawn.
lush raised beds in bloom
02 · Red Oak Ranch: ten acres and a big white farmhouse.
Lake Forest Drive · Conroe · 10+ acres
We have cared for this ranch since 2018, one phase at a time, and it has grown into one of our favorite gardens.
Red brick beds. Raised beds and retaining walls in red brick frame the big white farmhouse.
An acre of zoysia. At least an acre of Emerald zoysia rolls over gently shaped berms.
The dry river bed. A moss rock dry creek carries rainwater through the garden and looks good even when it is dry.
Japanese maples. A collection we have curated over the years, chosen for leaf color from spring through fall.
Flowers everywhere. Seasonal color and a huge rose collection fill the beds (more below).
Hidden in plain sight. A louvered screen on a brick podium hides the generator, built in 2025 to match the beds.
The supervisor. The ranch dog checks every brick bed we build.
The illustrious Valentine roses flank the entryway to the home.
Bespoke red brick raised box beds adding structure and neat hedges (NOT boxwood) to the pathways along the side of the house.
Part of the acre of Emerald zoysia "front yard", framed by mature trees.
Fragrant Sweet Drift roses pair nicely with silver trailing dichondra spilling over a planter.
Woodland shade garden under the tall pines.
Pink gaura blooms filling a sunny bed.
2-inch basalt parking extension that winds around to the barn.
Red brick planter beds with podiums.
A garden path lined with evergreen distyllium shrubs and Earth-Kind rose gardens.
The very dramatic weeping Ryusen Japanese maple in fall color, one of the collection we have curated over the years.
Ryusen Japanese maple glowing red in fall.
Practically effervescent blooms of the Cinco de Mayo rose.
Peggy Martin climbing rose doing her part to cover the pool equipment.
The Ryusen weeping Japanese maple, stately in summer green.
Stepped red brick retaining wall with a trough-style raised bed of prostrate cephalotaxus, a beautiful, laterally growing type of plum yew, framing the zoysia lawn.
Red Oak Ranch: a massive rose collection.
Lake Forest Drive · Conroe
The owner loves roses, so the red brick beds at Red Oak Ranch hold one of the biggest collections we care for, all grown organically:
Cinco de Mayo, in smoky orange and lavender.
Ducher, the white antique China rose.
Peggy Martin, the tough pink climber that survived Hurricane Katrina.
Sweet Drift, low pink groundcover roses along the bed edges.
Valentine, for deep red.
David Austin English roses, full, cupped and fragrant.
03 · Bakers Acres: a country house in La Grange, two years on.
Highway 159 · La Grange · 3.5 acres
A white farmhouse with a wraparound porch, big post oaks and a lot of open pasture. In February 2023 we planted 92 trees and shrubs across the three and a half acres, all on a new water-efficient irrigation system with ten zones and rotor heads for the wildflower meadow.
Shade and flowering trees. Chinese fringe tree, Mexican white oak, Nuttall oak and Texas redbud.
Screens and summer color. 20 vitex flank the drive way, 20 Lord Byron viburnum and 20 Brodie juniper screening the highway.
Tough natives. Rusty blackhaw viburnum, Texas sage and Texas persimmon.
Perennials. blackfoot daisy, winecups, bluebonnests, gallardria, copper canyon daisy, coneflower, coreopsis, various asclepias and other butterfly plants.
Built on good soil. amended with Native hardwood mulch, leaf mold compost, garden mix and MicroLife fertilizer.
Two years on: the trees are filling in and the Indian blanket is blooming right up to the porch.
04 · Wilderness Trail: ten acres, reforested.
Wilderness Trail · Friendswood · 10 acres
A new white-brick home with a standing-seam metal roof sat on a freshly cleared ten-acre lot. We designed it in two parts: a crisp front courtyard close to the house, and native reforestation islands and privacy screens out across the land.
Front courtyard. Raised beds in the home's own white brick and brick-edged beds in white and black gravel, planted with sedges, distyllium, Ducher and Drift roses, sweet olive, crinum and ginger.
Reforestation islands. Cork, Nuttall and Cambyi oaks, Mexican sugar maple, Mexican sycamore, fringe tree, Mexican plum and redbuds, underplanted with viburnum, possumhaw holly and beautyberry.
Privacy screens. Spartan juniper, viburnum and bottlebrush along the fence line and around the play court.
Built on proper soil. Leaf mold compost, green sand and native hardwood mulch from Nature's Way Resources, and MicroLife fertilizer.
Have land? Let's plan it.
We design acreage in 3D, phase it so it fits your budget, and plant for how it will look in ten years, not just ten days. Call 832-332-9204 or email cindy@petalorganic.com.
