Visit to Lotusland, part 4: Rear terrace, parterre & lemon arbor

Visit to Lotusland, part 4: Rear terrace, parterre & lemon arbor

June 08, 2013 Around back of the main house at Santa Barbara’s Lotusland, you find a Spanish-style courtyard with curlicue wrought-iron gates, pink stuccoed walls, and verdigris cafe seating. A Moorish tiled fountain and rill, on axis with the gate, make a cooling focal point. The tile work makes me ...
Spring color and edibles at San Antonio Botanical Garden

Spring color and edibles at San Antonio Botanical Garden

March 18, 2013 Two weekends ago my family and I kicked off spring break with a fun day trip to San Antonio and a visit to San Antonio Botanical Garden. We were greeted with a crayon box of annual color in these containers just inside the entry. Geraniums, nasturtiums, pansies, ...
Southwestern plants, French style & tropical verve in the garden of Curt Arnette

Southwestern plants, French style & tropical verve in the garden of Curt Arnette

June 12, 2012 Landscape architect Curt Arnette, of Sitio Design, is one of the best and yet most modest garden makers you’ll meet in Austin. Back when I was a newbie gardener, breaking ground at our first house in Austin, he and his wife Melisa were our across-the-street neighbors. What ...
Austin Open Days Tour 2010: David-Peese garden

Austin Open Days Tour 2010: David-Peese garden

October 22, 2010 Like a contemporary fairy-tale cottage, the home of James David and Gary Peese is glimpsed through the embrace of the surrounding garden: a fascinating, wow-inducing, richly planted—and richly hardscaped—yet intimate and surprisingly unpretentious garden. This was my final stop on last Saturday’s Open Days garden tour. James ...
Digging photo in Fresh Home magazine

Digging photo in Fresh Home magazine

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 ...
Three more gardens from Open Days Austin

Three more gardens from Open Days Austin

October 13, 2008 When Annie and I visited the gardens on the Open Days Austin tour two weekends ago, I was bowled over by Stone Palms and Fatal Flower, where the hand of the owners was plainly visible in the creativity of design and plant choices. Two more gardens on ...
A visit to Chanticleer: Hydrangeas & House Garden

A visit to Chanticleer: Hydrangeas & House Garden

July 21, 2008 I’m sure something shines brightly every month that Chanticleer is open (April through October). But I felt fortunate to see the hydrangeas in full bloom since I rarely see one in Austin. I can never decide whether I prefer the pink or the blue. The lacecaps are ...
Tour of Penelope Hobhouse-designed garden on Harris Boulevard

Tour of Penelope Hobhouse-designed garden on Harris Boulevard

October 25, 2006 A belvedere “modeled after the music pavilion at Versailles,” according to the Open Days Directory. We garden tourists knew this would be the most opulent garden on the Open Days Austin tour. A feature in the newspaper that tantalized with lavish photos, and mentioned that the garden ...
Tour of David-Peese garden

Tour of David-Peese garden

October 23, 2006 Entry garden. A gravel path flows around this sunny, graveled berm. It literally stopped me in my tracks as I gazed at the intriguing plant combinations. “Does this make me look fat?” I heard Gary Peese ask someone, fussing with his shirt as the Open Days tour ...