Read This: Bird-Friendly Gardening

Read This: Bird-Friendly Gardening

May 09, 2024 Part of the enjoyment of having a garden is watching the birds drawn to it. We put out birdfeeders, birdhouses, birdbaths, fountains, and ponds to bring them in. But what really attracts birds is plants — and I’m not talking about turf grass. Trees, shrubs, grasses, and ...
"It's what was here": A prairie garden grows near downtown Austin

“It’s what was here”: A prairie garden grows near downtown Austin

May 01, 2024 You wouldn’t expect to find a huge prairie garden here — the backyard of a private home so close to downtown Austin that blue-glass skyscrapers peek over the treetops. Owner Colin Corgan bought a historic 1880s house in the Travis Heights neighborhood a few years ago and ...
Spring in full swing in my garden

Spring in full swing in my garden

April 03, 2024 What a great time of year this is in a Central Texas garden. The days have been comfortable but not hot. The humidity is low. We’ve had a little rain but also plenty of sun. And the plants are racing with new growth and flowers. They’re feeling ...
Willow City Loop wows with Texas wildflowers

Willow City Loop wows with Texas wildflowers

March 29, 2024 I headed west to the Hill Country on Wednesday on a THIRD wildflower safari, cruising the Willow City Loop between Fredericksburg and Llano. This famously scenic, 13-mile ranch road winds through rugged canyons and over rocky hilltops offering spectacular views, with low-water crossings and free-range cattle to ...
More Texas wildflower joy near Independence

More Texas wildflower joy near Independence

March 26, 2024 Bluebonnets are popping off in Texas this spring, so much so that I made time for a second wildflower safari last Friday, heading east through farm country toward Independence. I shared Part 1 of that drive yesterday. Today, here’s Part 2. The rolling fields, farms, and ranches ...
Transplanted from PNW, Nancy begins new garden in Austin

Transplanted from PNW, Nancy begins new garden in Austin

March 23, 2024 I was happy to visit the new garden of a new gardening friend a few days ago. Located in Austin’s Windsor Hills neighborhood, the garden represents a new beginning for its creator, Nancy Fortner (@gardeningwhileold). In 2021, to be near their daughter, Nancy and her late husband, ...
Wading into Chanticleer's Pond Garden

Wading into Chanticleer’s Pond Garden

January 05, 2024 The Pond Garden at Chanticleer draws visitors like a magnet. Water features always do. Five ponds surrounded by blousy gardens are found at the bottom of the long hillside that begins at the garden’s entrance. This is Part 6 of my visit to Chanticleer during the Philadelphia ...
Chanticleer Garden is my cup o' tea

Chanticleer Garden is my cup o’ tea

December 29, 2023 The enchanting Chanticleer was worth two visits during September’s Philadelphia Area Fling tour. I flew in early from Texas in order to spend an entire day exploring Chanticleer, knowing I’d see it again for a few hours on Day 2 of the tour. More is more! This ...
Birds and native thorn forest at Quinta Mazatlan

Birds and native thorn forest at Quinta Mazatlan

December 19, 2023 In early November, I drove 5 hours south to the Rio Grande Valley, land of citrus orchards and skinny-trunked palm trees. I was there for the final photo shoot for my upcoming book on Texas gardens (due out in 2025 with Timber Press). But I couldn’t leave ...
Children's Adventure Garden at Dallas Arboretum

Children’s Adventure Garden at Dallas Arboretum

November 20, 2023 The Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden at Dallas Arboretum opened 10 years ago, but somehow I’d never visited until last month. Why? I guess because my kids had outgrown children’s gardens by the time it opened, and so it wasn’t on my radar despite many visits over ...
October blooms brighten my garden

October blooms brighten my garden

October 12, 2023 October! It’s the best month of the year, providing sweet relief from a Texas summer with cooler weather and rain and bringing the garden back to life. Let’s take a stroll ALL around the garden and see what there is to see. It’s oxblood lily season! These ...
Magical children's garden and plant displays at Longwood's conservatory

Magical children’s garden and plant displays at Longwood’s conservatory

October 01, 2023 This is how happy you feel exploring Longwood Gardens on the first day of the Philadelphia Area Fling, an annual garden tour held in a different city each year for garden bloggers and Instagrammers and others publicly sharing about gardening online. Longwood’s conservatory manager, Karl Gercens, hosted ...
Summer pleasures: Barton Springs Pool and Lockhart art

Summer pleasures: Barton Springs Pool and Lockhart art

September 07, 2023 I had reservations for a dip at Blue Hole swimming hole in Wimberley, Texas, just before Labor Day. But the drought has left little untouched in Texas this summer, and I soon received a cancellation notice. Blue Hole has closed for the rest of the season due ...
Wild creatures and smoke-shrouded scenery at Glacier National Park

Wild creatures and smoke-shrouded scenery at Glacier National Park

August 31, 2023 We arrived at Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana in mid-May. It was our northernmost destination on our 5-week RV road trip across the West. As we drove north from Yellowstone, the sky grew bleary with haze and then gray with smoke from Canadian wildfires. Road signs ...
Majestic mountains, wildlife, and Mormon Row at Grand Teton

Majestic mountains, wildlife, and Mormon Row at Grand Teton

August 24, 2023 During our RV road trip across the West, we visited Grand Teton National Park in northwestern Wyoming, a majestic place where blue, snow-streaked mountains rake the sky above a scenic valley. The Teton Range was formed along a fault line, where, 10 million years ago, colliding tectonic ...
Native plants at Chihuahuan Desert Botanical Garden in West Texas

Native plants at Chihuahuan Desert Botanical Garden in West Texas

August 22, 2023 Cow’s tongue prickly pear and Mitre Peak While visiting far West Texas last month, a few people mentioned the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and its botanical garden, located just outside of Fort Davis. So one morning my friend and I drove over from Marfa to check it ...