No, I’m not looking for a Mildred or Louise to eat bugs and lay eggs in my garden. But I couldn’t resist buying a ticket to Austin’s 5th annual Funky Chicken Coop Tour after watching a recent Central Texas Gardener episode (below) about Dani and Gary Moss’s charming and playful garden in southwest Austin.

Located on Westview Road, the garden is a homegrown creation by the retired but hard-working owners, who clearly can create anything they set their minds to. Dani envisions projects like their whimsical Chicksville hen house, and Gary builds them. He also welds metal into flowery stair railings, arbors…

…and decorative accents placed throughout the garden, like this metal heart inscribed with Dani’s nickname. How adorable is that?

Their chicken coop is sturdily constructed of wood and wire, with a metal roof for shelter from sun and rain. A ramp leads up through a hen-sized doorway in the stone foundation…

…into the colorful hen house itself, which also offers storage space for food and other supplies. It looks more like a lucky little girl’s playhouse than a hen house, doesn’t it? A tiny chandelier even hangs from the porch ceiling.

Similarly, the English-style conservatory that Gary built for Dani is dressed up inside with two chandeliers.

In the garden, roses were in bloom—lots of red Knock Outs plus a climbing pink rose and this flaming orange-and-yellow beauty.

Gary’s metal flowers provide nonstop blooms along the fence.

As does a bottle tree set in a garden bed near another of Gary’s heart creations.

What don’t they have? There was even this metal giraffe, cheekily wearing Mardi Gras beads…

…and a banded armadillo made of scrap metal.

Everywhere you looked, there were more of the couple’s creations, as well as lush plantings of evergreens and flowering perennials.

I’m glad I had a chance to see it, along with these two docents wearing hilarious chicken hats.

Happy Easter and happy spring!

All material © 2006-2013 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

Each week in October, which is Support Your Independent Nursery Month, I am featuring one of my favorite Austin-area nurseries here at Digging. To make things even more interesting, I’m also hosting a giveaway every week—one from each nursery! This week I’m shining a spotlight on The Natural Gardener.

The Natural Gardener is one of those nurseries in which you can easily spend an hour or two looking at plants, exploring the display gardens, looking at the donkeys, goats, and chickens with your kids, strolling the labyrinth, investigating the supersized tepee, and shopping in the nursery store. The extensive grounds and rural setting (though the surrounding area is increasingly being built out with homes and apartments) will make you feel as if you’re visiting a small farm, with rows of vegetables being tended by staff members, animals fed and cared for, swings in the trees for catching a cool breeze, and garden features meant for contemplative enjoyment.

John Dromgoole owns The Natural Gardener, and thanks to his long-running radio show, weekly TV appearances on Central Texas Gardener, and community activism, he’s the larger-than-life face of the nursery.

When you visit—and you must visit; this is an iconic nursery in Austin—you’ll find plenty to do, as this nursery map illustrates.

Or use this quirky signpost to get pointed in the right direction.

The Natural Gardener has a great selection of plants, including many natives and other adapted plants, succulents, woody lilies, herbs, and edibles.

The shrub and tree section is particularly good.

So is the succulent section.

One of my pet peeves at nurseries is bad or missing signage. The Natural Gardener scores extra points for clear signage with helpful growing information.

This place is decked out year-round with fun garden decor. Right now it’s all pumpkins and sunflowers.

Pots make great decoration too, of course, and N.G. has plenty of them, in all colors.

The display gardens just keep growing; each year, it seems, a new garden appears. This is the stream garden.

Here’s the working vegetable garden. They’re even growing corn!

And here’s someone hard at work.

This inviting swing overlooks a pretty herb garden. You’ll find a fruit orchard nearby.

Making the nursery fun for kids to visit are resident goats…

…chickens, and donkeys, whose braying usually tells you where they are.

A butterfly- and dragonfly-stamped path leads to a lovely butterfly garden right off the parking lot.

Stroll it for relaxation…

…or to get planting ideas for attracting butterflies to your own garden.

The information shed is where you’ll find knowledgeable staff members ready to answer your questions. You’ll also find plenty of staffers working the grounds, and they’re quick to ask if you need help finding anything.

In the nursery shop you’ll find nice restrooms (always a plus!) and seeds galore.

I often come to the nursery just to shop for gifts. I love their handcrafted garden/home decor.

They also have an excellent tool selection as well as garden books and bird feeders. And I haven’t even mentioned the educational offerings, like regular garden speakers and classes, or the homemade soil offerings, which include the popular Ladybug brand. There’s so much to see here, and you’ll find more about this excellent nursery in an earlier post I wrote about The Natural Gardener. I encourage you to visit and see what it has to offer.

Now for the giveaway! The Natural Gardener is giving away a $25 gift certificate to one of my lucky readers! Just leave a comment on this post to enter, and I’ll announce the winner at the end of the week. Update 10/7/12: The winner announcement is here.

Giveaway Rules:
1. You must leave a comment on this post to enter.
2. Only one entry per person is allowed.
3. Giveaway ends at 11:59 pm on October 6th.
4. I’ll announce the winner on October 7th.
5. The winner must go to the nursery with a photo ID to claim the prize within two weeks of winning. Prizes will not be mailed.
6. The winner is not eligible to win any other giveaways at Digging for 2012′s Support Your Independent Nursery Month.

Remember, win or lose, if you live here in Austin you’ve already hit the jackpot with a great selection of local nurseries at which to shop, learn, and be inspired.

Disclosure: I’ve posted about this nursery because it’s one I shop at regularly and recommend to others. I invited the owner/manager to participate in a giveaway for my readers, but my post was not conditional on any donation. Plain and simple: I like this nursery and think you will too.

All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

My second stop on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days tour last weekend was the Middleton Farm Garden, a contemporary home with homesteading flair in suburban north Dallas. Here’s the official description:

A suburban oasis loosely composed as three distinct aspects. A casual, manicured space of green lawn, bamboo enclosure, and trickling water that emanates from a small koi pond comprise the first garden. A lush and rampant garden of flowering trees and enclosing evergreens gives privacy and a natural expression to the pool and outside dining patios and a respite from the unrelenting summer sun. The third garden is business, comprised of irrigated raised beds filled with vegetables and culinary herbs with a backdrop of peach trees.

I didn’t start with the lawn, bamboo, and koi pond mentioned above. Instead I headed around back, through this parking court with a modernist assortment of concrete walls…

…past this perforated wall festooned with ivy…

…and into the back garden, where a patio shaded by a grape arbor offers protection from the summer sun.

A built-in pizza oven promises tasty meals on the patio.

Just off the patio, a swimming pool beckons. I like the narrow decking lined with herbs and other plants, and the way the rest of the yard is screened from view, creating an intimate pool area and making you want to explore the rest of the garden.

New growth on a hedge of nandina echoes the orange-cushioned chaises.

Behind the pool area and a shed was this surprising sight: chickens! Is Dallas turning into Austin?

Stroll past that nandina hedge by the pool, with another grape arbor espaliered above it…

…and you enter a sunny, welcoming vegetable garden with etched-concrete raised beds.

Dill

Partitioned from the vegetable garden by a perennial bed, this shady oasis opens up on the other side of the garden.

Looks like a peaceful place to relax with a good book.

A stand of black bamboo screens the side yard and part of the front yard from the view of neighbors, sheltering a small koi pond and seating area.

Koi

A rock sculpture complements a bamboo, elephant ear, and liriope combo perfectly.

Homemade sculpture: cow skull and deer antlers

I really enjoyed the division of space in this garden, creating various garden rooms for entertaining, growing food (and munching on it?), and relaxing.

Coming up next: The native-plant Passmore Garden. For a look back at the palm collector’s garden of Matthew Nichols, click here.

All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.