Succulents basking in the heat
June 03, 2011 The succulent wall pleases me to no end, and from unexpected angles of viewing. I particularly like this view from below, as I climb the steps to the upper patio. I even love the gray, matte color of the blocks juxtaposed with the soft mauves and cool ...
Dallas Open Days Tour 2011: Munsterman garden
May 25, 2011 I think the Munsterman garden, soon to be sold to some lucky buyer, along with the house, was my favorite on the May 21 Dallas Open Days tour. What can I say? I’m a sucker for garden rooms and colorful, inviting seating areas surrounded by striking foliage ...
Dallas Open Days Tour 2011: Rister-Armstrong garden
May 24, 2011 Our second stop on the Dallas Open Days tour last Saturday was the Anglophile garden of Alan Rister and Greg Armstrong in the Knox/Henderson neighborhood. Beautifully crafted formal hardscaping by landscape architect Susi Tompson is softened by lavish plantings designed and maintained by the owners. Anchoring the ...
Dallas Open Days Tour 2011: Blue Lotus Garden
May 23, 2011 As if there weren’t enough garden tours in Austin this spring, I drove up to Dallas on May 21st for that city’s Open Days tour benefiting the Garden Conservancy, accompanied by my daughter. Undaunted by the 3-hour drive, we arrived first at the exotically named Blue Lotus ...
Bloodspot mangave & succulent wall
May 19, 2011 My gardening rule of thumb, frequently broken (the rule, not the thumb), is to stop planting by May 1 in order to avoid having to establish new plants under the Death Star. But I make exceptions for cacti and succulents, which require little supplemental water. Still our ...
Inside Austin Gardens Tour 2011: Sheryl Williams garden
May 13, 2011 I was particularly interested to see Sheryl Williams’s garden during our sneak peek on Tuesday because she’s a fairly new Austin garden blogger, and, well, y’all know how I love our garden-blogging group. I’d met Sheryl before, but this was my first time to see her garden ...
Inside Austin Gardens Tour 2011: Sue Nazar garden
May 12, 2011 Sue Nazar’s garden, which you can see Saturday on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour, is a lush, expansive oasis tucked in the hills of west Austin. I got a sneak peek on Tuesday, courtesy of the Travis County Master Gardeners, and I’m sharing it with you. Over ...
Inside Austin Gardens Tour 2011: Rebecca Matthews garden
May 11, 2011 Whew, I just finished up a whirlwind of posting about last weekend’s Gardens on Tour 2011, and now I’m giving you a sneak peek into this Saturday’s Inside Austin Gardens Tour 2011, sponsored by the Travis County Master Gardeners Association. Hang onto your hats, and let’s go! ...
Gardens on Tour 2011: Eanes Circle garden
May 10, 2011 Steelwork appealed to me in the final garden on the Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour last Saturday. Take this planter box, for instance. The plants will look better when they fill in, but for now the box is fabulous. I also liked these bent-stake plant labels—clever. And ...
Gardens on Tour 2011: West Monroe Street garden
May 08, 2011 The distinguishing feature of West Monroe Street’s front garden, which I toured Saturday on the Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour, is a no-mow Berkeley sedge lawn in place of the standard St. Augustine. Alternatives to the traditional lawn were definitely a theme on this year’s tour. Designed ...
Gardens on Tour 2011: Bee Cave Road garden
May 08, 2011 Yesterday I toured the five private gardens on Austin’s Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour 2011. The annual tour is designed to showcase gardens planted predominantly with native plants. My favorite garden this year? Landscape architect, plantsman, and rock hound Tait Moring‘s personal garden on Bee Cave Road ...
Going to extremes at the Wildflower Center
April 24, 2011 Lace cactus in flower Gardening in central Texas is all about embracing extremes—of temperature, of rainfall, of summer’s brutal duration, and, most delightfully, of the contrast between soft and spiky. One element of good design is using contrasting forms, and our native plants offer many opportunities, as ...
Enchanted evening in Lucinda Hutson’s cantina garden
April 12, 2011 “Let’s go into the garden! Ai-yi-yi-yi!” trills Lucinda Hutson as she leads her guests, each with a rosy prickly-pear margarita in hand, over the threshold of her purple cottage and into her Rosedale garden. Lucinda is the kind of hostess who can pull off such cross-cultural exuberance ...
Carolina wren nesting on my front porch
April 10, 2011 What a crazy mama wren, to pick a nesting spot so close to our front door, putting her nest in a high-traffic area several times a day. She’s tucked it among the Texas sedges planted in the pot. See the round opening? And here she is, sitting ...
Garden Designers Roundtable: Bridging Earth and Sky with Vertical Gardening
March 22, 2011 I’m joining my colleagues at Garden Designers Roundtable today on the topic “Vertical.” Introducing vertical elements into the garden is a time-honored technique for bridging the gap between earth and sky. You can do so much more than just plant a tree! Here are my favorite techniques ...
Winner of the succulent picture kit
March 21, 2011 Thank you to everyone—all 145 of you!—who left a comment on last Monday’s cyber book party post celebrating the publication of Garden Up!. Everyone who commented was entered into a random drawing for a Succulent Living Picture Kit (valued at $70) from Succulent Gardens. And the winner ...
