Dragonflies

October 16, 2014 Earlier this month I visited the East Austin garden of Lee Clippard, blogger at The Grackle, and his partner, John. The first fall rains had just arrived, following a relatively mild summer, so their foliage-centric garden of native plants was looking lush and green. I’d never have ...

September 15, 2014 Perched on the northern edge of the Chihuahuan Desert, about 200 miles northwest of Austin, the small city of San Angelo is, surprisingly, home to a locally treasured and internationally known water lily garden, the International Waterlily Collection. Then again, maybe it’s not all that surprising, given ...

July 19, 2014 After touring Lan Su Chinese Garden in downtown Portland, the two Fling buses headed out to scenic, agricultural Sauvie Island for our visits to two premier nurseries: Cistus and Joy Creek. Cistus is a plant lover’s mecca, with rare and interesting plants from all over the world, ...

April 13, 2014 My sister, who lives in Houston, expressed amazement at how many gardens I managed to squeeze into my visit to her city a couple of weekends ago. It’s true. I’ve shown you four Open Days tour gardens, plus four drive-by gardens that were pretty fabulous, plus a ...

September 10, 2013 Hot-climate gardens need a water feature to counteract summer’s heat with a feeling of cool wetness. My stock-tank pond serves that purpose in my garden, plus it gives me a chance to grow a few plants that like wet feet, like this Crinum procerum ‘Splendens’. With burgundy, ...

August 15, 2012 Last week I took a quick trip to central North Carolina to visit my dad, who lives in the charming Fearrington Village planned community. (Pics of the Fearrington House Inn garden coming soon.) Many of his neighbors—and this is a neighborhood of retirees—have opted out of extensive ...

June 04, 2012 Whew, after all my posts about the cool, mountain gardens of Asheville, it’s time to get back to the hot, humid reality of home. We actually enjoyed a cool front last weekend that brought temps down to the low 90s and kept humidity low. I broke my ...

August 20, 2011 The final event of last month’s Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling was an afternoon visit to Dragonfly Farms Nursery—“Where Abnormality is the Normality!”—in Kingston, WA, and a fun happy hour on the lawn. Dragonfly Farms offers not only an enticing selection of plants for sale but beautiful and ...

June 29, 2011 As always when visiting a beautiful garden, time was short, so the Walled Garden and conservatory were our final stop at Biltmore House in Asheville, North Carolina, earlier this month. The grounds slope steeply down from the grand house, through the Italian Garden and Shrub Garden, leading ...

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 ...

August 08, 2010 Summertime is the stock-tank pond’s shining season. Situated as a focal point at one end of the garden, the pond is viewable from many angles. A circular stone path runs all the way around it. The gravel path at back-left leads into the hillside garden. But forget ...

June 24, 2010 A pond makes a wonderful garden feature at any time of year, but in summer it’s where the action really is, from plants to fish, birds, insects, and other wildlife. A sunny location allows you to grow water lilies, jewels of the summer garden. The yellow flowers ...

June 24, 2010 A pond makes a wonderful garden feature at any time of year, but in summer it’s where the action really is, from plants to fish, birds, insects, and other wildlife. A sunny location allows you to grow water lilies, jewels of the summer garden. The yellow flowers ...

June 09, 2010 Ivette Soler—L.A. garden designer, fellow agave nut, blogger extraordinaire at The Germinatrix, soon-to-be-published author, and an altogether delightful, adventurous, and generous person—visited Austin today for a meet-up with blogging friends. It was so great to meet her after following her blog for several years, a little like ...

June 09, 2010 Ivette Soler—L.A. garden designer, fellow agave nut, blogger extraordinaire at The Germinatrix, soon-to-be-published author, and an altogether delightful, adventurous, and generous person—visited Austin today for a meet-up with blogging friends. It was so great to meet her after following her blog for several years, a little like ...

June 01, 2010 Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) must always have a place in my garden. It’s one of the happiest summer flowers, with cottage charm and prairie toughness. Plus, those spiky orange coneheads are mesmerizing in close-up and offer vibrant contrast to hot-pink petals. Butterflies adore it, and small spiders ...