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, ...
Cutting Garden and Fling Party at Chanticleer

Cutting Garden and Fling Party at Chanticleer

January 24, 2024 Last September, the Philadelphia Area Fling took me to Pennsylvania, where I enjoyed two visits to the incomparable Chanticleer. I spent a full day there before the tour began and returned for the official afternoon visit, which ended with dinner, live music, and dancing in the garden ...
Goodbye, sweet boy

Goodbye, sweet boy

October 23, 2022 Our very good boy Cosmo crossed over the rainbow bridge on Tuesday. I miss him so much. From age 3, when we brought him home from a rescue group, to age 14, he brought joy and amusement and comfort to our lives. Cosmo was a sweet, excitable, ...
James David and Gary Peese's new garden in New Mexico

James David and Gary Peese’s new garden in New Mexico

September 09, 2022 Landscape architect James David and Gary Peese departed Austin about 5 years ago, leaving behind a 36-year-old, swoon-worthy garden that regularly starred on Open Days Tours and was covered by Martha Stewart, Architectural Digest, and, ahem, yours truly (click for my final visit). Looking for cooler weather, ...
James Golden's Federal Twist garden is like Fight Club, except we do talk about it

James Golden’s Federal Twist garden is like Fight Club, except we do talk about it

January 22, 2022 At the garden gate, towering grasses make you feel about 3 feet tall Plants duke it out for space and sunlight in every garden. But at Federal Twist, a wet-meadow garden in a clearing in the woods near Stockton, New Jersey, you witness the brawling fistfight from ...
At Bedrock Gardens art leads you on a journey

At Bedrock Gardens art leads you on a journey

November 18, 2021 In early October, as we road-tripped south from our leaf-peeping week in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, I was head-over-heels excited to revisit Bedrock Gardens, a private-transitioning-to-public garden in the town of Lee. I first visited Bedrock Gardens in 2014, when the owners, Jill Nooney and Bob Munger, ...
Betty Ford Alpine Gardens grows high in the Rockies

Betty Ford Alpine Gardens grows high in the Rockies

August 05, 2021 At 8,200 feet above sea level, Betty Ford Alpine Gardens in Vail, Colorado, claims bragging rights as the highest botanical garden in North America. It’s named, of course, in honor of the former first lady, who along with her husband, former President Gerald Ford, was a beloved ...
Spring sights in the garden

Spring sights in the garden

April 29, 2021 ‘Frazzle Dazzle’ dyckia My spring planting is done, and I think all my post-freeze cutting back is done too. There are still brown shrubs and dead-looking small trees (like a pomegranate coming back from the roots, with a few leaves here and there on upper branches) taking ...
Cowboy pool, colorful outdoor living: Lorie and Michael Kinler's Fort Worth Garden

Cowboy pool, colorful outdoor living: Lorie and Michael Kinler’s Fort Worth Garden

March 05, 2021 Last fall, during a weekend trip to Dallas, I was invited to visit the Fort Worth garden of Lorie and Michael Kinler. The Kinlers are the design duo behind Redenta’s Landscape Design Kinler Landscape Architecture (renamed in 2022), formerly affiliated with Redenta’s Garden nursery in Dallas. A ...
Snow day in Austin, Texas!

Snow day in Austin, Texas!

January 12, 2021 The biggest snowfall in a decade turned Austin into a floofy white wonderland on Sunday, January 10. All day long, fat snowflakes floated down from the sky, as if the clouds were having a pillow fight. Sure, this may not look like much to you northerners, but ...
Farewell, fall flowers; hello, first freeze

Farewell, fall flowers; hello, first freeze

December 01, 2020 So long, ‘Grapes’ gomphrena. It’s been a grand fall. But with a first freeze of 29F predicted early this morning, I expect your button-like flowers will soon look pale and freeze-dried. Well, it was time, I guess. Sayonara, forsythia sage. You were absolutely beautiful for two solid ...
Fall flowers, foliage, and change-ups

Fall flowers, foliage, and change-ups

November 11, 2020 Ah fall, how I love you. Even though our fall weather is comparable to summer in northerly regions (low to mid-80s F), and colorful foliage rarely occurs, it’s still my favorite season. After all, autumn is our second spring here in Texas, and fall perennials like Philippine ...
Back garden walkabout

Back garden walkabout

April 24, 2020 Y’all may get weary of seeing my garden each week while I hole up at home during the pandemic. While I’m missing all the gardens I’m usually able to visit and photograph — and share here at Digging — I am enjoying the time spent in my ...
Yellow spider lilies at peak and agave weevil death

Yellow spider lilies at peak and agave weevil death

October 23, 2019 First the good: my yellow spider lilies (Lycoris aurea) are at peak bloom. Every flower has opened and seems filled with golden sunlight. They thrill me every time I look though my office window or step out onto the back patio. Shazam! Cosmo had to get in ...
Springtime in Mom's garden

Springtime in Mom’s garden

May 11, 2019 Clematis ‘Jackmanii’ in full flower is like a constellation of purple stars. While strolling through my mother’s north Austin garden between rain showers last week, I was bowled over by the display. This is the best I’ve ever seen her clematis bloom. Adding more purple to the ...
Time to cut back the winter garden

Time to cut back the winter garden

February 18, 2019 Mid-February, right around Valentine’s Day, marks cut-back time for Texas gardeners. Dormant grasses and perennials are getting their annual haircut as I clear away last season’s growth (which I leave standing through the winter for wildlife habitat and its own quiet beauty) in preparation for the fresh ...