Chanticleer's dreamy House Garden

Chanticleer’s dreamy House Garden

January 01, 2024 Happy New Year! Let’s kick off 2024 with another post about glorious Chanticleer Garden, which I visited in late September during the Philadelphia Area Fling. Today I’ll show you the House Garden. Gravel Circle A rooster statue — the symbol of Chanticleer — greets you at the ...
Colleen Belk's Old Austin garden

Colleen Belk’s Old Austin garden

November 15, 2023 An Old Austin-style garden was featured on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days tour two weekends ago: Colleen Belk’s 43-year-old garden. Yes, 43 years! What is Old Austin style, you may ask? I think of it as a lushly planted Austin garden with Deep South-meets-Southwest plant choices, sort ...
Jay's front-yard garden of native plants in Dallas

Jay’s front-yard garden of native plants in Dallas

November 13, 2023 A few weeks ago in Dallas, I met up with Jay of NewTexasGardens at his home garden. It was great to meet a fellow Instagrammer whose photos I admire and who posts interesting content, like measuring the temperature of artificial turf on a hot summer day and ...
Jenny Rose Carey's charming Northview Garden, part 1

Jenny Rose Carey’s charming Northview Garden, part 1

November 05, 2023 It was a soggy late-September midday at the Philadelphia Area Fling when we visited author and horticulturist Jenny Rose Carey‘s garden, Northview Garden, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. My bus of 50 (garden bloggers, Instagrammers, and YouTubers) was invited first to have a sit-down lunch in the carriage ...
Homey fall garden at Brandywine Cottage

Homey fall garden at Brandywine Cottage

October 19, 2023 Tropical Storm Ophelia swept across the Philadelphia region during late September’s Philly Area Fling. But Flingers shall not be deterred! On we Flung in raincoats, ponchos, umbrellas, and waterproof shoes — or in sopping wet pants and socks. Our group arrived at plantsman and designer David L ...
Philadelphia Area Fling and Andrew Bunting's Belvidere

Philadelphia Area Fling and Andrew Bunting’s Belvidere

September 28, 2023 A gravel garden in the front yard of Andrew Bunting’s Belvidere I spent all last week in the beautiful countryside around Philadelphia for the 14th annual Fling (formerly known as Garden Bloggers Fling), touring private and public gardens with around 100 other garden writers, bloggers, Instagrammers, YouTubers, ...
Happy, colorful courtyards at The Lincoln Marfa

Happy, colorful courtyards at The Lincoln Marfa

September 18, 2023 I stayed at The Lincoln, a boutique hotel of 14 “unique homes” at a century-old property, when I visited Marfa a couple weeks ago. A bright yellow door and orange cosmos flowers offered a cheerful welcome as I rolled my bag to Unit 7, passing a gigantic, ...
Running through Marathon, Texas

Running through Marathon, Texas

September 03, 2023 On the way home from a trip to far West Texas in late July, my friend and I swung through tiny Marathon, Texas, for lunch. Fifty miles east of Marfa and 50 miles north of Big Bend National Park, Marathon is known as the gateway to remote ...
Robert Bellamy's upcycled Marfa garden

Robert Bellamy’s upcycled Marfa garden

August 02, 2023 Last week I road-tripped 7 hours west to remote Marfa, a sleepy desert town in far West Texas that’s also, thanks to Donald Judd, an art mecca drawing visitors from all over the world. Quite a few Marfa lovers from Dallas, Houston, and Austin own second homes ...
Door greeters

Door greeters

July 31, 2023 During Austin’s infernal summer at least the porch plants are looking good. Coppertone sedum spilling out of a Pot Inc. hanging planter even matches the door color — Benjamin Moore “Wasabi”, if you’re curious. Most of these were grown from cuttings, like the Coppertone sedum, blue chalksticks, ...
Drive-By Gardens: Waterwise front yard on Castle Hill

Drive-By Gardens: Waterwise front yard on Castle Hill

July 11, 2023 Cruising through the Castle Hill area of Old West Austin recently, I spotted this beautiful 1910 home with a sky-blue door and modern landscaping. I hit the brakes for a closer look. The house sits atop a front yard terraced with Corten steel and board-formed concrete walls ...
Old San Antonio style in Melody's garden

Old San Antonio style in Melody’s garden

June 12, 2023 While in San Antonio two weeks ago, I met up with my friend Melody, who invited me to see her garden again. I first visited 9 years ago — whaaaat? where does the time go? — and was eager to see it again. In her large flower ...
Flowers going up and coming down

Flowers going up and coming down

April 03, 2023 The first hummingbird appeared last weekend, zooming under the dangling red flowers of soap aloes. No surprise there. Those aloes put out quite the welcome mat for hummers. The spiderwort has had a good run — here’s a volunteer by the covered porch, looking pretty — but ...
One-of-a-kind design on the 2023 Tribeza Interiors Tour, Part 2

One-of-a-kind design on the 2023 Tribeza Interiors Tour, Part 2

January 26, 2023 I’m so glad Austin’s excellent Tribeza Interiors Tour is back after a 2-year pandemic hiatus. On Sunday’s tour day, I managed to see all 7 of the featured houses, plus squeeze in a picnic lunch courtesy of my touring partner, in the 5 hours allotted to the ...
Color-saturated homes on 2023 Tribeza Interiors Tour, Part 1

Color-saturated homes on 2023 Tribeza Interiors Tour, Part 1

January 25, 2023 A pink front door and chromatic rug make a cheerful entry at Genie Norris’s house The quiet season for gardening makes the perfect season to focus on interiors — and to attend Austin’s annual Tribeza Interiors Tour. After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the tour resumed last Sunday, ...
Cynthia Deegan's free-spirited, collected home and garden

Cynthia Deegan’s free-spirited, collected home and garden

November 01, 2022 The mossy green doors of Cynthia Deegan’s milagro-spangled garden gate opened to me again a week or so ago, when she generously invited me and Garden Spark speaker Teri Speight to come on over. What a treat to follow up our visit to Lucinda’s garden with Cynthia’s! ...