A little Palm Springs, a little New Orleans, all Texas in the garden of Curt Arnette

A little Palm Springs, a little New Orleans, all Texas in the garden of Curt Arnette

May 16, 2018 I’ve been after my friend Curt Arnette, landscape-architect owner of Sitio Design, to open his personal garden on tour for years. But because he likes to change things up at home (plus being busy with his work projects), he’s always said it wasn’t ready. Persistence pays off, ...
Sparkler sedge is back, plus more great foliage

Sparkler sedge is back, plus more great foliage

April 16, 2018 Today is Foliage Follow-Up, a celebration of great foliage plants on the day after Bloom Day, and I’m celebrating the return to nurseries all over Austin of one of my favorite foliage plants for dry shade or morning sun: ‘Sparkler’ sedge (Carex phyllocephala ‘Sparkler’). For the past ...
New leaves coming up, old leaves coming down

New leaves coming up, old leaves coming down

March 16, 2018 Spring looks a lot like fall in my garden, as this photo shows: fresh green leaves surrounded by brown live oak leaves. Live oaks stay green all winter, like an evergreen tree, but come spring they do actually drop their leaves and swiftly leaf out again. Casting ...
It's been a cold winter, but the garden's still got it going on

It’s been a cold winter, but the garden’s still got it going on

February 14, 2018 Thank heavens for evergreens, grasses, yuccas, and structural features like stock-tank ponds, big containers, and low walls. After this withering, frostbitten winter, my garden would otherwise be flattened. Of course I’ve been moaning and groaning about the damage anyway. (Isn’t that what we gardeners do?) But taking ...
Grassy scrims and yucca color for Foliage Follow-Up

Grassy scrims and yucca color for Foliage Follow-Up

January 16, 2018 As I write this, an icy wind is flinging plastic pots and flapping draped sheets that are supposed to be sheltering certain freeze-tender plants in my garden. All I will say about that is that this is not the winter I signed up for. Happily, most of ...
Fall color and grassy plumes for December Foliage Follow-Up

Fall color and grassy plumes for December Foliage Follow-Up

December 16, 2017 Despite our one-day snow last week, it still looks pretty autumnal in my garden this Foliage Follow-Up. The Japanese maple stubbornly refuses to acknowledge fall until December, when the Christmas lights go up on the house and red balls go up on the agave by the door ...
Wavy scaly cloakfern for November Foliage Follow-Up

Wavy scaly cloakfern for November Foliage Follow-Up

November 16, 2017 “I got a rock,” Charlie Brown complains while trick-or-treating. But I was happy to find this holey limestone rock at Redenta’s in Dallas last month. Yes, I actually bought a rock as a planter. Later, at The Natural Gardener, I happened upon this unusual plant — wavy ...
Foliage architecture (and art) on Rice University campus

Foliage architecture (and art) on Rice University campus

October 16, 2017 At my alma mater in Houston last month (right after Hurricane Harvey), I appreciated the marriage of foliage and architecture at the Brochstein Pavilion, a remarkable structure and hub of student activity that didn’t exist when I was a student at Rice University. A hedge of tightly ...
Evergreen combos (mostly) for Austin

Evergreen combos (mostly) for Austin

September 16, 2017 A local reader asked me about evergreen plants that grow well here in central Texas, and as I was putting together today’s Foliage Follow-Up post, I realized it’s a good opportunity to share some of my faves. I use a lot of evergreen plants — though not ...
Hanging on through summer's end: August Foliage Follow-Up

Hanging on through summer’s end: August Foliage Follow-Up

August 16, 2017 By mid-August this Texas gardener is looking for any shred of hope that summer’s heat will be waning soon. But even though I’m barely hanging on — along with this shed cicada skin — many of my plants are soldiering through, including yellow-striped ‘Color Guard’ yucca. It ...
Summer-tough Foliage Follow-Up

Summer-tough Foliage Follow-Up

July 16, 2017 Summer is my most challenging season as a gardener. Yes, really — not winter. I don’t care at all for hot weather, so I retreat indoors and don’t venture outside much until that first hint of cooler air and lessening of the Death Star that typically occurs ...
Read This: Gardening with Foliage First

Read This: Gardening with Foliage First

June 16, 2017 Today is Foliage Follow-Up, my monthly meme that encourages us to focus on often-underappreciated foliage plants, rather than spotlight-hogging flowers. That means it’s the perfect day to review a new book by two foliage-loving design experts, Karen Chapman and Christina Salwitz. Gardening with Foliage First: 127 Dazzling ...
Agave and cactus splendor in the garden of Matt Shreves

Agave and cactus splendor in the garden of Matt Shreves

May 16, 2017 For Foliage Follow-Up this month, I’m taking you on a tour of Matt Shreves’s garden near Lake Travis. A succulent and cactus lover (check out his spikealicious Instagram page), Matt has turned an ordinary yard into a tapestry of foliage texture, color, and bold form. Let’s start ...
Easter Sunday Foliage Follow-Up

Easter Sunday Foliage Follow-Up

April 16, 2017 I’m imagining my blog feed filling up with pictures of pastel Easter eggs and white lilies. But here at Digging, in spite of a flurry of kitchen activity (I’m making Tex-Mex deviled eggs and a lemon cake), it’s still Foliage Follow-Up. Let’s start with the stock-tank pond ...
Marvelous maroons for March Foliage Follow-Up

Marvelous maroons for March Foliage Follow-Up

March 16, 2017 One of my favorite spring-blooming shrubs for bright shade features raspberry flowers and maroon leaves. It’s Chinese fringeflower (Loropetalum chinense ‘Sizzling Pink’), and its richly colored foliage contrasts beautifully with blue-green paleleaf yucca (Y. pallida) in a purple pot. Variegated pittosporum ‘Cream de Mint’ adds shade-brightening foliage ...
Garden clean-up in progress for Foliage Follow-Up

Garden clean-up in progress for Foliage Follow-Up

February 16, 2017 The pond patio garden is mostly evergreen, so the big cleanup here occurs later, in March, when I muck out the pond and divide the water plants. With our brief winter segueing right into spring, February is a transitional month here in Central Texas. We may yet ...