Author and designer Lucinda Hutson‘s gabled purple cottage and garden in the Rosedale neighborhood of Austin is as colorful as a basket of Easter eggs…

…but even better because it contains scented petals, billowy texture, and something blooming at every turn, like this ‘Julia Child’ rose.

When Lucinda invited me over last week to see her garden in spring bloom, I knew I’d be in for a colorful treat. She’s always painting the walls of her house or garage or fences some vibrant color, like mango, yellow-gold, or hot pink, and this visit was no exception. A new cobalt-blue fence along the former driveway sets the tone for an under-the-sea garden of succulents, complete with a mermaid. In back of her house, a vibrant purple paint was still wet on the siding.

Matching pots of pink pelargoniums and silver dusty miller welcome you at the front stoop.

To the right, under the shade of a ginkgo tree, Lucinda screened her neighbor’s driveway with a board fence, inset with vine-covered lattice panels and adorned with birdhouses.

She’s experimenting with creeping Jenny and ajuga groundcovers here in the shade. They got awfully thirsty last summer, she said, but they look great now. The little pink house on the left is a kitchen-scraps composter.

Chard and herbs grow alongside ornamentals like Jerusalem sage in the sunny front garden.

The light illuminates chard like stained glass.

Another buttery blossom from the ‘Julia Child’ rose

Looking left of the house, you see a walled garden where the driveway used to be. A lattice arbor over the gate echoes the tall gable of the house.

Just inside the gate is the mermaid garden and a little patio with seating for two.

A tiny pond built against the wall houses a mosaic fish and is decorated with a mermaid basin.

Looking down the driveway-turned-garden you see a purple garage (converted to storage), with an exuberant vegetable garden in front.

Red poppy

Lucinda is liberated from the notion that the side and back walls of the house and garage must match the purple front, and they wear festive shades of golden yellow…

…salmon (on the right)…

…and aquamarine, helping to set the mood for distinct garden rooms as you round each corner. This is La Lucinda Cantina, a serving table under a cedar pergola behind the garage.

There’s also a rustic outdoor shower.

A peek inside

Tita the cat gets a little love.

I’ve had the good fortune to visit Lucinda’s home and garden several times, and she’s always the most gracious hostess, serving up punch and sugared Mexican pastries.

Beautiful objects adorn every surface of her charming home.

Carrying the platter into the garden, she plucks roses and other blossoms and tucks them among the pastries for an even prettier display.

Almost too pretty to eat

Lucinda’s pineapple-mint punch, with pansies floating for decoration. Yum!

Thank you, Lucinda, for a delightful visit! Lucinda has another book coming out soon called Viva Tequila!; look for it in a few months.

If you can’t get enough of Lucinda’s Tex-Mex cottage-garden style, visit my other posts about her garden:
Lucinda Hutson’s enchanting garden, April 2008
El Jardin Encantador: Lucinda Hutson’s garden, October 2009
Enchanted evening in Lucinda Hutson’s cantina garden, April 2011

All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

My next stop on the Houston Open Days tour on March 24 was an Old World-style home in the well-heeled River Oaks neighborhood. While their garden included the sweeping lawns, classic hedging, and emphasis on outdoor architecture commonly seen on this tour, I have to admit that the garden was beautifully designed. But what stopped me in my tracks surprised even me: this walled garden under a “bosque of hornbeams.” More on this below.

Let’s start with the official description:

This gracious house and garden evoke the restrained elegance of the original houses built in River Oaks. Designed by Curtis & Windham Architects and completed in 2002, the stucco house and its garden were inspired by the work of architect Charles Platt who built many fine residences in the 1920s. The original expanse of lawn was preserved and enhanced with additional perimeter, canopy, and ornamental trees. A subtle drop in grade across the property enabled the formation of a sunken oval lawn framed by layered plantings of azalea, viburnum, camellias, and ornamental trees beneath the existing canopies. From there, a path winds through a woodland garden comprised of native and ornamental plantings beneath a grove of Mexican plum trees. While tucked behind the house one discovers a walled parterre garden under a bosque of hornbeams and, next to it, a wisteria-covered pergola from which to enjoy the pool set in a lawn of zoysia bordered by gardenias with views to the woodland garden beyond.

From the front driveway we rounded the side of the house, enjoying two water features along the way.

Everything was meticulously maintained and beautifully designed.

Dwarf mondo grass surrounds bluestone paving at the side entry.

The afternoon sunlight glows through the leaves of potted citrus set in a parterre of boxwood. It was all very nice, but I didn’t expect too much from the tour at this point. We’d seen a number of gardens that were well designed but not full of personality or even particularly interesting plants.

Across from the side entry, this walled garden caught my eye. Diagonal paving of decomposed granite was segmented by triangles and rectangles of emerald dwarf mondo grass. Rows of hornbeam trees in exact alignment supported a leafy roof over the enclosed space, in which a lacy iron table and fold-up, park-style chairs offered relaxation.

I took a few pictures and walked on by, then stopped and went back to look at it again.

I became fascinated with the space, which irresistibly drew me in.

Being enclosed by the hedges, but not hemmed in, with space to sit and read or gaze about or even stroll along the diagonal paths, the way the trees caught the light and made intricate shadows with the table—I knew if I lived here, this is where I’d spend a lot of time.

I had no idea this sort of geometry and enclosure could inspire so much delight, but it did. I loved this garden room.

Around the other side of the wall stood a tall pergola overlooking a swimming pool…

…and with seating for…well, the whole garden club. I couldn’t help peeking through circular windows in the wall…

…for a framed view of the parterre garden I’d just left.

I finally tore myself away and continued around the house to this pretty terrace. My camera ignored the large back lawn and strolling garden of azaleas, though I’m sorry I missed the grove of Mexican plums. Ah well.

And that’s it for the tour. I did visit one more estate-style River Oaks garden, but the owners did not allow photographs, so I won’t bother writing about it. For a look back at the classic Tudor Garden, click here. You can follow links back to all of the gardens, and I hope you enjoyed my series on the Houston Open Days tour.

All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

My friend Jenny Stocker, who blogs at Rock Rose, has shared her garden with me many times over the years. Each time I am struck anew by the beauty of her English-style xeric Texas garden, which shows many native plants to advantage in gravel-mulched, walled courtyards surrounding her contemporary stucco home in southwest Austin. On Tuesday a friend and I were treated to another visit, and I can’t resist posting about her garden again.

Pictured at top is my favorite space in Jenny’s garden, a sunny, open, sunken garden paved with stone and gravel and self-seeding little plants, surrounded by coffee-table-sized boulders, yucca, and taller flowering perennials. A comfortably furnished covered porch overlooks the sunken garden, a sapphire-blue swimming pool, and the greenbelt behind. On this early November morning, the garden was abloom with color and drenched in sunlight.

But let’s start at the beginning, outside the front walled garden, where Jenny likes to begin her visitor’s tour. This is the approach from the driveway, a rugged limestone path set in gravel. There are no formally delineated beds, just tough, native plants following the pathway’s edges. This area is not on irrigation, although Jenny mentioned she has hand-watered the plants a few times over the summer.

Cenizo in bloom

Along the wall that hides the front garden from view, a foundation planting of dwarf yaupon holly loosely echoes a line of boulders. Square mirrors on the wall masquerade as peek-a-boo windows.

Fall color, Texas style. We had difficulty identifying this volunteer. We thought it might be skeleton-leaf goldeneye daisy, but the leaves don’t look feathery enough. Update: Thanks to Tina for a possible ID as goldeneye (Viguiera dentata), a relative of the skeleton-leaf.

Walk through the gate in the monumental arbor that shelters it, and you enter the front courtyard, which I expect is sunny at midday and beyond. This is a beautiful gravel garden with tidy, mounding plants and ruby grass ‘Pink Crystals’ (Melinus nerviglumis).

Jenny’s front door is embraced by star jasmine, which must be incredible in spring bloom.

Jenny loves flowers, but she’s not at all afraid of spiky succulents, which add structure and interest throughout her garden.

Manfreda sileri

Golden barrel cactus

Passing through an intimate walled garden along the side of the house, you step into another large courtyard with a tall stucco wall dividing it from the next space—but tantalizing doors and windows offer glimpses of what’s to come.

A window in the wall offers a peek at an inviting seating area and more garden beyond.

But before we move on, let me rhapsodize about Jenny’s Philippine violet (Barleria cristata), which is simply gorgeous in full, bushy bloom.

Why am I not growing this plant?!

With those largish leaves and lush habit, it doesn’t look like a plant that would survive a summer like we just endured, much less look so good doing it.

Moving on…you pass through the open doorway in the stucco wall and enter the sunken garden and pool courtyard.

‘Fireworks’ gomphrena blazes away in the sun. I’ve seen this tall gomphrena all over central Texas this year.

It’s easy to see why this annual is so popular all of a sudden. Great color and height, wonderful in masses, heat and drought tolerant. Lovely!

The focal point of Jenny’s sunken garden is a birdbath and rabbit ornament, with the flagstones and boulders softened by flowering perennials, self-seeding annuals, and small grasses.

Great contrast between unyielding limestone and soft-textured flowers and grasses.

‘Radsunny’, a buttery yellow Knock Out rose

The garden style may be English (as are the owners), but Jenny plays up the Western theme on the covered porch with cowboy art and pillows and Mexican-pottery lizards. She’s corralled much of her succulent collection on the hearth, but these go in the greenhouse when a freeze threatens.

View from the porch

Yuccas, roses, salvias and more, plus rocks and walls, in a symphony of color and structure.

Narrowleaf zinnia and lamb’s ear make a cool combo.

Orange tithonia attracts butterflies in the sunken garden.

Everywhere you look, there’s texture and color.

Gomphrena, salvia, and ruby grass

A little New Mexico comes into play with a chile ristra spicing up a stuccoed wall.

A pedestal planter with Mexican feathergrass and narrowleaf zinnia anchors a circle of thyme.

The final walled garden contains Jenny’s potager. Screened frames keep hungry critters out of fall vegetables, while annual celosia pops up each year amid the pavers.

Jenny has been picking pomegranates and straining the seeds to top her breakfast cereal, but I saw a few more dangling from the branches.

I love that rosy color against the sandy-hued walls.

‘Bloodspot’ mangave and pyracantha in fall berry

Thank you again, Jenny, for sharing your garden with me. It’s beautiful as always, even after a very difficult central Texas summer.

For anyone interested in more of Jenny’s garden, especially in spring, read my other posts:
Jenny’s flower-licious walled garden
Feeding the soul in Jenny’s garden
Meeting Carol & a tour of Jenny Stocker’s garden

All material © 2006-2011 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.