Garden tours 2009

August 20, 2020 No, I have not recently traveled to Chicago (I wish!). But I did just come across photos from the 2009 Garden Bloggers Fling in Chicago and was stunned to realize I’d never written about one of the gardens we visited: the home garden of chef, restaurateur, TV ...

November 08, 2009 A monarch and honeybee share space on a Mexican sunflower (Tithonia rotundiflora) Twelve Austin garden bloggers caravaned to San Antonio on Saturday to visit San Antonio Botanical Garden and the Antique Rose Emporium, with a stop along the way at Madrone Nursery in San Marcos, a native-plant ...

October 29, 2009 Ooh la la, Lucinda! Local author and designer Lucinda Hutson, she of the purple cottage in central Austin’s Rosedale neighborhood, welcomes you into her garden with open arms, offers of cuttings, and an exuberance for giving a tour. “Y’all, look at this!” she calls as she leads ...

October 29, 2009 Ooh la la, Lucinda! Local author and designer Lucinda Hutson, she of the purple cottage in central Austin’s Rosedale neighborhood, welcomes you into her garden with open arms, offers of cuttings, and an exuberance for giving a tour. “Y’all, look at this!” she calls as she leads ...

October 27, 2009 Pull up a chair in Randy Case’s eclectic garden I’ve shown you three of the six wonderful gardens on last Saturday’s Inside Austin Gardens tour. Time constraints and harsh midday sunlight kept me from taking as many pictures in the other three gardens, but they were lovely ...

October 26, 2009 My favorite color echo on Saturday’s Inside Austin Gardens tour appeared in Eleanor Pratt’s garden in the Brentwood neighborhood of north-central Austin. Eleanor repeats the red of a Japanese maple red-leaf hibiscus (Hibiscus acetosella) with a swath of bachelor’s buttons. Vivacious! Eleanor also grows the plant I ...

October 25, 2009 My favorite garden for plants on Saturday’s Inside Austin Gardens tour was the Westlake garden of Gail Sapp. Her plants are big, bold, and architectural, and she crams them in with abandon, making a visit to her garden the delighted exploration of a strange new world. Her ...

October 24, 2009 The fall Travis County Master Gardeners tour today featured six gardens that fit the theme of “Sustainable Gardening for Urban Wildlife.” Three of them are the creations of Austin garden bloggers. Each one offered something unique and personal. But by far the most colorful and fun-loving garden ...

October 06, 2009 October is a busy month for Austin gardeners. It’s prime planting season, the weather is cool enough to start those hardscaping projects we put off all summer, classes and presentations are happening left and right, and it’s garden-tour season again. Yippee! Mark your calendars and join me ...

September 14, 2009 On Sunday afternoon, with temps in the low 80s and rain-heavy clouds in the sky, the kids and I dropped by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for an hour-long stroll. During our hot summers I tend to avoid outings that don’t involve a steady supply of ...

September 02, 2009 Cascading down a steep-sloping front yard, Jeff Pavlat’s 8-year-old terraced xeric garden is a symphony of form, texture, and subtle color echoes. I met Jeff a year ago at an Oracle Gorge Nursery sale and have asked his advice about agaves and aloes from time to time ...

September 02, 2009 Cascading down a steep-sloping front yard, Jeff Pavlat’s 8-year-old terraced xeric garden is a symphony of form, texture, and subtle color echoes. I met Jeff a year ago at an Oracle Gorge Nursery sale and have asked his advice about agaves and aloes from time to time ...

June 08, 2009 For my last post about Chicago Spring Fling, I’ll revisit a gem of a garden hidden away in a corner of Lincoln Park, not far from the zoo: Caldwell Lily Pool. A sign gives you the back story. Like entering a cave or a slot canyon, you ...

June 06, 2009 I’m going to reveal my innate geekiness by comparing the Fern Room in Chicago’s excellent Garfield Park Conservatory to the lush, edenic world created by Project Genesis in Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan. Come on, you know you’ve seen it. Don’t you agree? A century old, ...

June 04, 2009 Heading back to the hotel after spinning under the Bean, Diana and I couldn’t resist a quick peek at the Art Institute‘s north garden (we missed the south garden). Here are just a few images from this small but lovely public garden. Pictured above is prairie smoke ...

June 03, 2009 One of the highlights of Spring Fling Chicago was a guided tour of Lurie Garden by chief horticulturalist Colleen Lockovitch. Colleen provided the ultimate insider’s guide to the garden, pointing out her favorite plants and explaining how she and her staff maintain them, suggesting we ask our ...