On the trail in Eldorado Canyon near Boulder, Colorado
September 01, 2018 Two weeks ago, my youngest left for college. Three weeks ago we spontaneously took a Great American West road trip up through Colorado, South Dakota, and Wyoming, seeking out lonely but epic scenery. For me it was also, of course, about putting off the blues of her ...
Houston, capital of Southern-cool art?
August 24, 2018 Detail of Dixie Friend Gay’s mosaic Wild Wonderland in Houston’s Midtown Park Speeding away from the sleepy South Carolina town I grew up in, I rolled into megatropolis Houston at the nadir of the mid-1980s oil crash. Local shops were shuttered, regional banks were going out of ...
Snake in the garden: Danger noodle or welcome predator?
March 01, 2018 Am I the only one who finds snakes rather fascinating, even charming, particularly if the scaly visitor is small and harmless? For every gardener who goes pale over a slithery shape in the grass, surely there are plenty of us whose eyes light up and who lean ...
Autumn stroll around my garden
October 27, 2017 Autumn is my favorite season in the garden, when the Death Star abates and cool breezes blow in from the north, pushing that Gulf Coast humidity back to Houston where it belongs. The sky goes china blue, fall perennials burst into bloom, and fall-blooming grasses incandesce in ...
Visit to Fort Worth Botanic Garden and Japanese Garden
October 15, 2017 Although I’ve been to Dallas and its well-known public garden many times, until last weekend I’d never visited the botanical garden in nearby Fort Worth, just 45 minutes to the west. While not showy like Dallas Arboretum, Fort Worth Botanic Garden is a pleasant place to stroll ...
RIP, wren chicks — you were no match for a rat snake
May 20, 2017 Tragedy for the wrens raising week-old chicks in a birdhouse I’ve been observing from my office window. Yesterday morning, as I sat down at my desk, I looked out to check on the little family — I’ve been watching the parents feeding the chicks — and something ...
Latest critter in the pool: Western slimy salamander
December 12, 2016 Add this western slimy salamander to the list of crawly critters that have fallen into our swimming pool. We spotted it at the bottom of the shallow end after our recent rains. David got the net without much hope of it being alive, but it moved when ...
Spooky garden visitors
September 28, 2016 It’s not even Halloween month yet, and we’ve had a few spooky garden visitors…or should I say, spooky residents? Exhibit A: a coral snake in the swimming pool. I heard my husband’s startled reaction as he reached into the skimmer yesterday afternoon and found himself hand-to-face with ...
Zinging through the end of summer
September 01, 2016 Although I was gone for half of it, which no doubt helped, August was one of the most pleasant Augusts I’ve experienced since moving to Austin 22 years ago. It just hasn’t been all that hot (in the low to mid-90s F, and even some days in ...
Magical mosaics in the garden of Wouterina De Raad, Part 2: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
August 05, 2016 Yesterday I shared Part 1 of my visit to Wisconsin artist Wouterina De Raad’s mosaic sculpture garden, which was the final garden — and my favorite — on the recent Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling. Today I’ll end my Fling series with Part 2 about Wouterina‘s delightful, exploratory ...
Meadow views and fantasy treehouses at Longwood Gardens
June 27, 2016 Contrasting with the many formal and traditional gardens at Longwood Gardens (a Philadelphia-area estate garden I visited earlier this month), the 2-year-old Meadow Garden presents an appearance of wild nature. The meadow’s 86 rolling acres of native grasses, perennials, and wildflowers come into view from a shady ...
Those who play in glass houses: Conservatory and Indoor Children's Garden at Longwood Gardens
June 26, 2016 Maybe Southerners don’t need conservatories because our winters are pretty green. Growing up in the South, I don’t recall ever visiting a conservatory until I started garden traveling to northern states. (We don’t have a culture of spring garden shows either, perhaps for the same reason.) Call ...
May flowers from A (agave) to V (vitex)
May 27, 2016 As the days fly toward summer, the daylilies are showing off their lovely throats… …and blushing, ruffled petals. Here’s ‘Best of Friends’. The first ‘Apple Tart’ smolders among the white-striped flax lilies. Stretching on long stems like giraffe necks, ‘Wilson’s Yellow’ daylily stands tall amid grasses and ...
Snake lounging and whale flowering in the garden
May 22, 2016 The biggest snake I’d ever seen in my garden was lounging in a bamboo hammock this morning. Earlier, while looking out my office window, I’d noticed a bamboo cane leaning horizontally and thought, “Hmm, did it rain again?” But no, everything looked dry, so I eventually moseyed ...
Dreamy blues and a few surprises in the garden of Lori Daul
March 29, 2016 When a gardener urges you to come over to see something in bloom, you know you better say yes. Lori Daul of The Gardener of Good and Evil tempted me into a quick visit last Saturday — not with an apple but with “the last of the ...
Stained-glass leaves and Crazy Eyes snake
August 22, 2015 Even a dark-green, fibrous leaf, like that of cast-iron plant (Aspidistra elatior), glows like a stained-glass window when backlit by the setting sun. In the lowest, shadiest part of my garden, it fringes a native Mexican buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa), which is also aglow. A tunnel of incandescent ...
