Photography

September 19, 2011 Austin Home‘s design issue (Fall 2011) lists 22 hot trends, and one of them is growing agaves as a drought-surviving plant. In that vein, they also ran an article on local succulent and cactus guru Jeff Pavlat, and they published one of my photos of his garden ...

August 18, 2011 The Bloedel Reserve is a place of utter beauty and almost spiritual peacefulness. Rain drips quietly from mossy branches, and the color green wraps you in a soft embrace. I explored the grounds for two-and-a-half hours—not nearly enough time to see all 150 acres, but enough to ...

June 06, 2011 I stumbled upon Chanticleer Garden by happy accident while on a driving trip down the East Coast during the summer of 2008. It was, and still is, the most engaging, playful, and beautiful garden I’ve seen. (Click here for the first of my six posts about Chanticleer.) ...

May 06, 2011 “Night Magic” Seduced by the glimmer of a single open blossom on my Datura metel, I set up my tripod in the night garden and used an upturned flashlight to create a glowing illumination. A screech owl trilled in the trees above. It was a magical moment ...

April 15, 2011 A few interesting things I’ve seen this week in various gardens around town. First, Southern Living photographer Ralph Anderson leaning in for a close-up of a miniature donkey at Nancy Whitworth’s garden. I drove Steve Bender and Ralph to a couple of gardens while they were here ...

March 29, 2011 The charming Cottage District in Buffalo, NY, captured the hearts of many a garden blogger last July at Buffa10, the 3rd annual Garden Bloggers Fling. Six of my pictures from that weekend are featured in the Spring 2011 issue of Buffalo Spree Home magazine. One of them ...

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 ...

March 14, 2011 Today is the official launch of Garden Up! Smart Vertical Gardening for Small and Large Spaces, a new book by Susan Morrison and Rebecca Sweet, my friends and colleagues at Garden Designers Roundtable. To celebrate, Rebecca and Susan are hosting a cyber book party with 7 great ...

November 12, 2010 Gazing up from the watery depths, I spied a mysterious figure in the garden. Who could it be? All material © 2006-2010 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited ...

September 07, 2010 Sea holly, or eryngo (Eryngium leavenworthii) I tried watching an instructional DVD about using my new camera on Sunday but fell asleep halfway through. When I awoke I decided a real-life test drive should be the first step, at least to try out the semi-automatic settings. So ...

September 06, 2010A heads-up for those who don’t like pictures of spiders: just skip the first 3 images to see a water snake and the inspiration for this post. I dragged invited my DH and teenage son along to the Wildflower Center yesterday afternoon, in 95-degree heat, to stroll the ...

September 06, 2010A heads-up for those who don’t like pictures of spiders: just skip the first 3 images to see a water snake and the inspiration for this post. I dragged invited my DH and teenage son along to the Wildflower Center yesterday afternoon, in 95-degree heat, to stroll the ...

July 02, 2010 When photographer and all-around nice guy Rob Cardillo photographed my former garden two years ago, he explained that he’d be pitching his images to a magazine for a story idea about regional or xeric design. I was delighted and flattered by his interest but didn’t really expect ...

July 01, 2010 Here’s my entry for July’s Picture This photo contest sponsored by Gardening Gone Wild. The theme intrigued me: Capturing the Intent of the Gardener. Professional photographer and judge Rich Pomerantz explains that he is looking for images that “interpret what the gardener has created, as opposed to ...

June 19, 2010 If you happen to pick up the Summer 2010 issue of Fresh Home magazine, and if you happen to turn to page 79 as you read the article “The Magic of Motion”… …you’ll see one of my photographs, an image of a rill and pool from Chanticleer ...

March 21, 2010 I recently discovered Floradora, a garden blog from the San Francisco Bay Area, and I am hooked on its crisp, beautifully shot photographs. The author is a garden designer/horticulturalist with a keen eye for beauty in leaf, stem, and flower, who also features her family’s hiking trips ...