My friends Kylee Baumle (Our Little Acre) and Jenny Peterson (J Peterson Garden Design) have co-authored a brand-new book called Indoor Plant Decor: The Design Stylebook for Houseplants. To celebrate and help publicize its release, I’m participating in their cyber book party. And you know what a party means: prizes! But before you jump to the giveaway listing at the end of this post, I hope you’ll stick around for my review of their book.

First a confession. I have to admit that while I was happy for my friends for writing a book, I wasn’t initially all that interested in the topic. Regular readers know I’m not a houseplant gardener. I have one spindly dracena in the living room and a small aloe on the kitchen windowsill, and that’s it. In general I feel that plants, like animals, belong outdoors. (And yet I have an indoor dog too. What gives?)

But while reading Indoor Plant Decor, I began to have a change of heart. Jenny and Kylee show a variety of ways to showcase commonplace houseplants. With chapters organized by decorating style — Cheap Chic, Peaceful Zen, World Beat, and Vintage Vibe, to name a few — the book shows how to complement your interiors by choosing appropriate plants and containers or other methods of display. Simply changing out a ho-hum pot for something different, like the wood planter pictured above, groomed with moss and raked sand on top, can make an ordinary plant into a standout accessory for your home.

Based on their chapter descriptions, I’d say my style is modern eclectic. But I was particularly drawn to the plant displays shown in their Haberdashery chapter — houseplant style especially for men. I imagine it’s partly because they show bold-foliage plants here, but I also admire the earthy and striking, no-fuss display methods, like this clear glass bowl filled with pebbles and topped with succulents. I love this!

The book is small, gift-book sized, and packed with appealing photos, and would make a nice housewarming or college graduate gift. You won’t find a lot of how-to info on growing houseplants — there are other books on the market that fill that niche — but if you’re looking for a book of ideas and images to get you thinking about new ways to display your plants and update your decor, this book is for you.

And now for the giveaway! My prize offering is a handsome Bonsai Tool Set from DeWit Tools. Here’s the description from the company website:

This Bonsai tool set (really more of a small garden tool set) is just the right size for maintenance of your Bonsais or other small plantings. Don’t let the size fool you, these tools are made with the same quality materials as the larger DeWit tools. All four tools have blade made of Swedish boron steel and fitted with an Ash hardwood handles from FSC Certified forests. Comes with wood storage case and Guaranteed a Lifetime! All tools are 6-7 inches long. Total value: $75.00

How to enter:
Leave a comment on this post to enter my giveaway of the bonsai tool set (FYI, another blogger is giving away a 2nd set). The giveaway runs through Sunday, May 12, at 11:59 pm. I’ll announce the winner on Monday the 13th. Please note that this giveaway is open to U.S. residents only. Update 5/13/13: The winner, selected by a random number generator, is Danny! Congratulations, Danny, and my thanks to everyone who took the time to comment.

Ten Eleven bloggers are participating in this fun virtual book tour, each offering a prize related to houseplant gardening. Visit each blog and leave a comment on the giveaway post for a chance to win that specific prize. The more blogs you visit, the more chances to win! Good luck!

Carolyn Binder – Cowlick Cottage Farm
Shawna Coronado – Shawna Coronado
Charlotte Germane – Dirt Du Jour
Stacy Risenmay – Not Just a Housewife
Erin Schanen – The Impatient Gardener
Rebecca Sweet – Gossip in the Garden
Christina Salwitz – Personal Garden Coach
Steve Asbell – The Rainforest Garden
Debra Lee Baldwin – Gardening Gone Wild
Robin Horton – Urban Gardens
Pam Penick – Digging

Disclosure: St. Lynn’s Press sent me a copy of Indoor Plant Decor for review. I reviewed it at my own discretion and without any compensation. This post, as with everything at Digging, is my own personal opinion. The giveaway prize has been donated by DeWit Tools.

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

My friend Lucinda Hutson invited me over to her purple cottage on Sunday to see her angel’s trumpets in bloom, plus all the rest of her exuberant, flowery garden.

Lighting up her quiet Rosedale neighborhood street like a fiesta in full swing, Lucinda’s garden is an irresistible mix of color, romance, humor, and creativity. Colorful paint brightens every vertical surface: house (3 different body colors, depending on which side you’re looking at), wooden fences, and a detached garage-turned-shed. Flowering roses, angel’s trumpets, and sweet peas scent the air. Enticing gates and arbors beckon you onward, through a succession of intimate garden rooms. A “tequila cantina” anchors the rear garden with a party-ready set-up and a tequila-bottle bottle tree.

I long ago fell under the spell of Lucinda’s El Jardin Encantador. Perhaps you will too. Come along with me for a tour.

First of all, you can see she owns the cutest house in the world. Painted purple with lavender trim and a rosy-mango door, its arched frame accented with tiles, the house announces that someone with a zest for life lives here.

The front yard is given over to a flowery cottage garden filled with roses, annuals, and native perennials. There’s no lawn except for a narrow, grassy path near the front door.

The promised angel’s trumpets (Brugmansia) were indeed gorgeous. I inhaled their residual sweet scent left over from the evening.

Lucinda is growing sweet peas this year, and they smelled heavenly too.

A closer look at the sweet peas

And another view of the angel’s trumpets

Buttery roses—’Julia Child’ was one—make a sunny backdrop to the sweet peas.

Star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) in bloom added another sweet scent to the garden. You can see it behind this white-winged dove, which alit on the birdbath and posed for a photo.

A small angel kneels among salvias and snapdragons.

Yellow snapdragons lit up a partly shaded area under a ginkgo tree, one of a few I’ve encountered in Austin.

Sancho the cat lounged on a purple garden seat.

A wider view of the garden reveals an enormous Jerusalem sage (Phlomis fruticosa) in full bloom.

Along the left side of the lot is a gravel drive, which no longer leads to the detached garage in the back yard. It stops short, blocked by a stone wall over which heartleaf ice plant (Aptenia cordifolia) cascades and a peaked, wooden arbor supporting a ‘Don Juan’ rose.

An intricate iron gate offers peek-a-boo glimpses of the garden beyond.

I adore this gate! Now we’ve walked through, and here’s a look back, with the front garden abloom in the background.

Another view, with nasturtiums tumbling along the ground

In the very back of her lot, behind her former garage, Lucinda created a festive cantina for her frequent parties. A rustic table serves as a bar, sheltered by an arbor constructed of unpeeled cedar posts topped with a metal agave. On the turquoise wall, a wooden sign proclaims this to be “La Lucinda Cantina.” At left, a tequila bottle tree is mulched with corks, and metal mariachis play. Horseshoes line the eave for luck.

What a perfect setting for Lucinda to show off her brand-new book, Viva Tequila! Cocktails, Cooking, and Other Agave Adventures, soon to be released in May. By the way, if you want to hear the always entertaining Lucinda speak about her new book—and her agave adventures—plan to attend the Garden Club of Austin’s May 23rd meeting, 7 pm, at Zilker Botanical Garden.

I got a sneak peek. It’s a beautiful book!

And the cantina is awfully fun, isn’t it?

Lucinda is bold with color, painting even her wooden privacy fence to festive effect. Here’s her mermaid garden, with blue and green capiz shells creating a watery curtain behind a metal fish and a preening mermaid. Snake plant (Sansevieria) and succulents like ‘Sticks on Fire’ euphorbia add to the wavy, under-the-sea vignette.

Lucinda created this mosaic Madonna altar out of an old bathtub and mortared it into a stone wall.

Mexican folk art is prominently displayed throughout her garden.

These are children’s chairs from Mexico, turned into an artistic collection along an orange wall of her house.

A closer look

In front of her former garage, Lucinda built a large raised bed over her old driveway and planted edibles and more roses.

Silverware flowers pick up the edible theme with a touch of whimsy.

A wider view

An eye-catching flower. This is some sort of African daisy, Lucinda said. Update: This is an Osteospermum hybrid, perhaps ‘Soprano Lilac Spoon’ by Proven Winners.

Aren’t they cool?

This is the dining deck immediately behind the house. A purple umbrella shades the table and cushy chairs. It always amazes me how many distinct garden rooms Lucinda was able to carve out of her tiny lot. And the beauty of it is that they make her garden live much larger than you’d expect.

A frilly metal chair stands by the door to her detached office, where she writes and prepares for her many speaking engagements.

A heart-shaped pad on a spineless prickly pear—Mother Nature’s own valentine?

My thanks to Lucinda for another delightful garden visit! Readers, if you’d like to see more of Lucinda’s festive garden, check out my previous posts:
Lucinda Hutson’s Easter-egg colorful garden, April 2012
Enchanted evening in Lucinda Hutson’s cantina garden, April 2011
El Jardin Encantador: Lucinda Hutson’s garden, October 2009
Lucinda Hutson’s enchanting garden, April 2008

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

Holy smokin’ lawn alternatives! My publisher just told me that Lawn Gone! has gone into its 2nd printing, just 2 months after publication!

Huge thanks to everyone who’s purchased a copy, carried it in your store, or given Lawn Gone! a shout-out or positive review. Oh, and I’d like to call out Whole Earth Provision Co. for now carrying my book at all their stores in Austin, Houston, San Antonio, and Dallas. If you didn’t know, Whole Earth is not only a fabulous place to shop for fun gifts, toys, and outdoor clothing and gear, it also has a rather large selection of books, including several shelves devoted to sustainable gardening, homesteading, green building, and the like.

I found two copies of Lawn Gone! at Whole Earth’s N. Lamar Blvd. store in Austin yesterday and asked an employee to take another geeky picture of me holding my book. Can’t resist! Anyway, I’d love to know that those two copies were snatched up right away so that they’ll order more. Look for Lawn Gone! next to the big, orange Design*Sponge at Home book.

While we’re on the topic of lawn alternatives, here’s a sneak peek of my newest experiment: a Berkeley sedge “lawn.” More info soon!

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