Gardens on Tour 2011: Stratford Drive garden
May 09, 2011 Imagine a steep, overgrown hillside of invasive nandina, bamboo, and ligustrum. That’s what the homeowners on Stratford Drive looked out on after building a contemporary, 5-star green home (as rated by the Austin Energy Green Building program) in the Rollingwood neighborhood of west Austin. According to the ...
Gardens on Tour 2011: West Monroe Street garden
May 08, 2011 The distinguishing feature of West Monroe Street’s front garden, which I toured Saturday on the Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour, is a no-mow Berkeley sedge lawn in place of the standard St. Augustine. Alternatives to the traditional lawn were definitely a theme on this year’s tour. Designed ...
Gardens on Tour 2011: Bee Cave Road garden
May 08, 2011 Yesterday I toured the five private gardens on Austin’s Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour 2011. The annual tour is designed to showcase gardens planted predominantly with native plants. My favorite garden this year? Landscape architect, plantsman, and rock hound Tait Moring‘s personal garden on Bee Cave Road ...
Enchanted evening in Lucinda Hutson’s cantina garden
April 12, 2011 “Let’s go into the garden! Ai-yi-yi-yi!” trills Lucinda Hutson as she leads her guests, each with a rosy prickly-pear margarita in hand, over the threshold of her purple cottage and into her Rosedale garden. Lucinda is the kind of hostess who can pull off such cross-cultural exuberance ...
Hartman Prehistoric Garden is cycad-delic
March 31, 2011 One hundred million years ago, Austin looked a lot different. A shallow sea lapped across central Texas, and later, as the sea retreated, cycads, magnolias, ferns, reeds and other ancient plants colonized the humid marshes. A dinosaur like this one walked here, leaving behind footprints that fossilized ...
Last chance for giveaway, plus upcoming garden events
March 19, 2011 I’ve had a remarkable response to my giveaway of the succulent living picture kit. This Sunday, March 20, at 11 pm is the deadline for entering the drawing. To enter all you have to do is leave a comment on my post about Garden Up! (Note: you ...
