Digging
Growing a central Austin cottage garden

May 14, 2008

Tom Spencer’s TexZen garden

Filed under: 7th Year--2008, Garden tours 2008 — Pam/Digging @ 5:33 am


Blue pot with dianthus

Can a garden you’ve visited only three times, briefly, seem almost as familiar as your own? It can if it’s Tom Spencer’s. At Soul of the Garden, Tom has been chronicling his garden—and “exploring the garden of life”—with stunning photographs and introspective essays for eight years. So last Saturday, when my husband and I made Possumhaw Hollow our first stop on Gardens on Tour 2008, I found myself leading my DH from garden room to garden room, telling him the names of each space and explaining the meaning behind Tom’s design. (It was a little weird, actually. That feeling of intimacy, while not really knowing, is both the delight and the downfall of reading someone’s garden blog, but that’s a subject for another day.)


Tom has an attractive and shady front garden…


…but the back garden is where most of the action is. Passing through the back gate, you step onto a checkerboard granite-and-limestone patio (see MSS’s post for a photo) that sits several steps above the garden for a sweeping view of the extra-long lot. Taking in the view with us stood a man in a Mr. Smarty Plants t-shirt. Of course, I had to ask if he was Mr. Smarty Plants, a Wildflower Center gardening expert who answers readers’ questions online, and to my surprise he said he was, with assistance from several others. He introduced himself by name, but I see on his webpage that his identity is meant to remain a mystery, so I won’t reveal more. Suffice it to say he was very nice and expressed interest in the Austin garden-blogging community (yes, I plugged it).


At that point, we spotted Tom, his camera dangling from his shoulder, and he came over to say hello. He looked excited yet relaxed, and I hope the day went well for him. It can’t be easy to welcome 750 visitors into your garden on one day (see his post about it; you must scroll down to May 11–evening), but his garden’s generous layout and linear design make for good flow, which surely helped.


This hideaway nook, created with a semi-circle of possumhaw hollies, gave the garden its name, Possumhaw Hollow. It anchors one end of the transverse axis of the garden.


Just outside the hollow, this pyramidal boxwood parterre and the bald cypress allee behind it exert a magnetic pull from the elevated vista of the patio. Explore me, cries this path.


Obligingly, we strolled down the allee as I explained to my DH, like a tour guide, that Tom planted the double line of bald cypresses to evoke the beauty of the cypress-lined Hill Country rivers he fell in love with when he moved here. We marveled over how much the trees had grown since we’d last seen the garden a couple of years ago.


In a circular node at the end of the allee, this vignette begs you to pause for a moment to observe.


One of the garden’s beautiful collection of religious statuary, from Mexico, I’m guessing.


To the right, orange daylilies brightened a side path that led back toward the possumhaw hollow.


Tucked among lush native palms, a Buddha head contributes to a tropical feel along the south fence.


We backtracked to the circle node, however, to continue along the back of the garden. Visible behind this ‘Santa Rita’ prickly pear, writhing, white-painted branches constitute a sculpture called “Tree Bones” by Hank Waddell.


Another sculpture in the labyrinth


Emerging from the labyrinth through an arched trellis, the path draws you toward a long, rectangular pond, centered along the same axis.


Water lilies were blooming.


Dwarf papyrus added its pretty chartreuse green and pincushiony texture.


Another meditative sculpture


Working our way back to the center of the garden, we found the conversation room, as Tom calls it. This beautiful agave backed by pink-blooming salvia grew nearby.


The conversation room and a sharkskin agave (I think)


A miniature Zen garden amid the southwestern natives. Contemplative spaces and vignettes abound in Tom’s garden.


As do circles and other geometric shapes, imparting a sense of order. Here’s another look at the agave bed deliciously mulched in blue glass. It’s mesmerizing.


We went on to see all the private gardens on the tour, and I’ll have a few images from some of them in a later post. By mid-afternoon, when we called it a day, the temperature was a muggy, sizzling 95 degrees F. But after dinner, a hailstorm hit our neighborhood, chipping golf-ball sized chunks of ice into my own garden. By some miracle, nothing was damaged, not even our cars. A lovely north wind followed the storm, and by Sunday morning we had cool, dry temperatures and perfect weather for Mother’s Day.

All material © 2006-2008 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

May 9, 2008

Mousie voting ends soon

Filed under: Photography, Mouse & Trowel Awards, 7th Year--2008 — Pam/Digging @ 10:11 am


I’ll be touring Austin gardens on Saturday and visiting with out-of-town family this weekend, so I may not have time to post again until early next week. Voting for the Mouse & Trowel Awards wraps up soon, with the 13th being the last day to vote. Digging has been nominated for Best Photography and Best Design. If you enjoy my photos and/or the look of this site, I’d love to have your vote. Click here for the list of finalists; you have to scroll to the bottom of the page for the link to the ballot. Thanks for your support and good wishes!

I’ll leave you with a few of my favorite images from Digging. Have a great weekend!

All material © 2006-2008 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

May 8, 2008

Passionate Lady Margaret and spring’s passing

Filed under: 7th Year--2008 — Pam/Digging @ 11:05 pm


‘Lady Margaret,’ my newest passion flower, rewards close inspection with intricate detail.


She’s the lady in red, slightly tarnished, not a pure red. Raspberry perhaps, with a purple-tinged shawl. ‘Lady Margaret’ is a hybrid, created by crossing Passiflora coccinea and P. incarnata.


Here you see her embracing a shaggy cedar post on the Green Hall shed. Beside her floats a sea-foam cloud of bamboo muhly grass (Muhlenbergia dumosa ) in full bloom. Yellow-spangled zexmenia (Wedelia texana ) peeks out at its feet.


Like a tree-form lantana, the Barbados cherry (Malpighia glabra ) has burst into confetti-ish, lightly fragrant flower.


Behind the stock-tank container pond, majestic sage (Salvia guaranitica ) throws lime green and cobalt together to brighten the shade garden. Beneath it, blue-green heartleaf skullcap (Scutellaria ovata ) spires stand ready to add their lilac flowers to the mix.

These welcome early-summer flowers ease the passing of playful, temperate Spring. OK, Summer. Let’s see if we can make the best of it this year.

All material © 2006-2008 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

May 6, 2008

Gardens on Tour this weekend

Filed under: 7th Year--2008, Garden tours 2008 — Pam/Digging @ 10:40 pm


‘Best of Friends’ daylilies with the stock-tank planter containing silver ponyfoot, squid agave, Manfreda ‘Macho Mocha,’ and Hinckley’s columbine

Spring and summer are vying for dominance in Austin this week. One day it’s in the 70s and a cool north wind is blowing. The next, it’s a muggy 84 degrees F, and the mosquitoes are abuzzing.

Despite the fact that forecasters are predicting mid-90s on Saturday, I want to remind those of you in the Austin area about Gardens on Tour 2008, a self-guided tour of five private gardens presented by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Showcasing Texas native plants and demonstrating sustainable-gardening practices, the gardens range, as usual, along the west side of Austin, up and down Highway 360 and MoPac. Spring Flinger and fellow garden blogger Tom Spencer will be opening his garden gate for the tour, and I plan to visit his place first thing. By the way, Tom’s garden recently aired on KLRU-TV’s “Central Texas Gardener.” It was wonderful to hear him explain the personal meaning behind each of his garden spaces. Watch it for a preview of the tour.

If you’d like to see my photos from past Gardens on Tour, click here for 2007 and here for 2006. Meanwhile, summer color is appearing in my garden this week, with daylilies, rock penstemon, and salvias blooming.


‘Best of Friends’ daylilies


‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (Agave ovatifolia ) with ‘The Fairy’ rose


Engelmann’s daisy (Engelmannia peristenia ) and a lone winecup (Callirhoe involucrata ) next to the birdbath filled with green glass


Winecup (Callirhoe involucrata ) with skullcap (Scutellaria suffrutescens )


Rock penstemon (Penstemon baccharifolius )

All material © 2006-2008 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

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