When you have to jackhammer the “soil” to plant anything, when your garden gets only 12 inches of rainfall a year, when you live in a desert, you just know gardening isn’t going to be easy. And yet, despite these conditions in Tucson, Arizona, which I recently visited for the annual Garden Writers Association symposium, gardeners still coax plants from the earth, and beautiful gardens still exist.

Tucsonans are also blessed with great natural beauty in the stark yet majestic landscape that surrounds them. Perhaps more than gardeners in gentler parts of the world, Tucson gardeners feel the push and pull of embracing the wider world by keeping open views to the mountains, while simultaneously holding it at bay with enclosing walls, creating irrigated edens within.

At least, that’s what I mused on while visiting this homegrown garden on tour in Tucson. It belongs to Lorien Tersey, who operates a small farm business, DreamFlower Garden, on her less-than-one-acre property, growing vegetables, herbs, flowers, and landscape plants for market. The front and side yards contain her personal gardens, including this simple side-entry space with potted plants, where the old adobe house positions straight-edged, white walls against the cobalt sky and mountain vista glimpsed over a low wall.

Don’t you love the name DreamFlower Garden? I bet this honeybee is feeling it.

Lorien’s front garden is pretty spare, as one might expect in a desert garden…

…but even so there’s color and form, with architectural Opuntia backed by a yellow-flowering sub-shrub of some sort.

Around the side of the house, a shady porch promises a cool respite from the intense sun. Red chile pepper lights strung around the door seem to say, “Welcome to Arizona!”

Thirstier tropical plants are grown here, closer to the hose, like this orange hibiscus…

…and this bog container garden with cattails.

The ‘Macho Mocha’ mangave on the wall likely doesn’t ask for much, so long as it has some protection from the full sun.

I’m fond of the industrial look in my garden—why else would I have a steel-pipe planter and several culvert-pipe planters? So this rose-against-steel combo naturally appealed to me.

In back, pomegranate trees were bearing rosy fruit…

…and this unknown-to-me vine was blooming against corrugated-steel siding (love!).

Rows of zinnias added confetti-like color, perhaps destined for market bouquets.

Desert plants like cholla and opuntia edged the border between garden and alley, providing that all-important sense of place.

Next up: The artful desert garden of Keith and Helga Zwickl. For a look back at the garden of Alan Richards, with its colored walls, click here.

All material © 2006-2012 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.

Lovely strolling gardens wrap all sides of the country inn at Fearrington Village, near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which I visited earlier this month. I spent a happy hour early one morning exploring its grounds, which include an English-style white garden, an herb garden, shrub borders, and Adirondacks set on green lawns with views of the countryside.

Fearrington House Inn and Restaurant is housed in the old Fearrington family homestead, on a former dairy farm.

Southern comfort

The gardens are charming, with sweet details like this pensive cherub amid the ivy…

…and a seashell-shaped birdbath set in the liriope.

Common garden plants are used to nice effect, like this hosta and liriope.

Yellow coneflowers and New Zealand sedge

The white inn is a picturesque focal point throughout the gardens.

Walk around back and you’ll find this white garden—Jenny’s Garden, according to a small sign, named for Jenny Fitch, co-founder of Fearrington Village and the creative designer and tender of its gardens until her death at age 57 of breast cancer.

You can see that it’s a perfect setting for a wedding, all romance, flowers, and white pergolas.

The pillars in the central fountain, like the cows and goats at Fearrington, are belted!

The inn’s rear terrace is shaded by a vine-draped pergola—so inviting.

A cardinal was enjoying a morning visit to the garden as well.

Sweet autumn clematis, already in bloom

Walking back toward the front entrance, I passed this pretty wisteria arbor and a formal knot garden.

Yellow flowers and chartreuse foliage brightened the border around the patio.

The inn’s rooms are accessed through private courtyard gardens. Wouldn’t this be a nice spot in which to relax after a busy day in town?

This mockingbird was busy gathering breakfast.

Speaking of breakfast (and other meals), I assume the restaurant grows its own herbs here.

There’s a large greenhouse and cold frames too.

Follow the red brick path…

…to a lawn bordered with gorgeous shrubs and trees, with plenty of room to spread out and reach their full size.

Pick an Adirondack and enjoy the bucolic vista.

Or just close your eyes and enjoy the bliss of the garden, secure in the knowledge that you’re not responsible for maintaining any of it.

For a look back at Fearrington’s village center and farm animals, click here. Next up: the colorful gardens adorning Fearrington’s village shops.

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