Edibles

May 10, 2010 The Bridle Path garden in the Tarrytown neighborhood was my favorite on Gardens on Tour 2010 because it had the best of both worlds: a naturalistic garden for sun and shade in the front, with a charming council-ring style seating area tucked out of sight of the ...

April 12, 2010 Anticipating the peak bloom of her roses, Lori of The Gardener of Good and Evil invited the Austin garden bloggers to a happy hour visit yesterday. Overcast, almost misty conditions enhanced the romance of her garden, which is billowy and pillowy with roses, flowering vines, and feathery ...

April 12, 2010 Anticipating the peak bloom of her roses, Lori of The Gardener of Good and Evil invited the Austin garden bloggers to a happy hour visit yesterday. Overcast, almost misty conditions enhanced the romance of her garden, which is billowy and pillowy with roses, flowering vines, and feathery ...

November 24, 2009 Poking around in the lower “garden”—a half-wild area along the back fence—examining with dismay a weed-overgrown path, rampant English ivy, and what I suspect is poison ivy, I also happened to notice these gray-green, football-shaped fruits dangling from the pineapple guavas (Feijoa sellowiana) planted by the previous ...

November 09, 2009 Garden path at the Antique Rose Emporium Rose Garden: two words that induce irrepressible yawns. I’ve never enjoyed traditional rose gardens, where different varieties of roses are spaced out across a sunny square and unaccompanied by any other plants. It makes for a hodgepodge of color and ...

October 03, 2009 When the pineapple guavas (Feijoa sellowiana) bloomed in my garden last spring, I posted about my distaste for the flowers. But now that fruits are forming, I find I’m rather fond of the fuzzy, silver-green pods with tall, elegant hats. The fruit is edible, and while bitter ...

October 03, 2009 When the pineapple guavas (Feijoa sellowiana) bloomed in my garden last spring, I posted about my distaste for the flowers. But now that fruits are forming, I find I’m rather fond of the fuzzy, silver-green pods with tall, elegant hats. The fruit is edible, and while bitter ...

June 05, 2009Mr. McGregor’s Daughter’s garden On Thursday before Chicago Spring Fling, Mr. McGregor’s Daughter invited those she knew were arriving early to visit her garden, Squirrelhaven. Several of us took the train from the hotel that afternoon and were met at the station by an open-armed, excitedly yelling MMD, ...

June 02, 2009 Tulips and toadflax Where to begin? Yesterday afternoon I returned to Austin from the second annual Garden Bloggers Spring Fling, held in Chicago this year, feeling dazzled by all the spring-blooming Windy City gardens, hoarse from talking so much with friends old and new, and dog-tired from ...

May 24, 2009 Heuchera and ‘Toffee Twist’ sedge, also called copper sedge ( Carex flagellifora) The new-baby garden glowed green and wet yesterday afternoon. Memorial Day weekend is typically rainy in Austin, and this year has proved no exception, despite the ongoing drought. ‘Wilson’s Yellow’ daylily This puny rain gauge ...

May 11, 2009 A carpet of silver ponyfoot (Dichondra argentea) sparkles like a stream in the Buckeye Trail garden. My pictures from this garden, our third stop on the Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour, don’t do it justice. The Buckeye Trail garden, located in Rollingwood, was my favorite of the ...

April 28, 2009 After visiting Jill Nokes’s walled garden last Sunday, the Austin garden bloggers drove to fellow blogger Jenny/Lancashire Rose‘s walled garden. Although differentiated by geography—Jill gardens on black gumbo clay in central Austin, Jenny on thin limestone “soil” and gravel in southwest Austin—they have much in common, including ...

April 28, 2009 After visiting Jill Nokes’s walled garden last Sunday, the Austin garden bloggers drove to fellow blogger Jenny/Lancashire Rose‘s walled garden. Although differentiated by geography—Jill gardens on black gumbo clay in central Austin, Jenny on thin limestone “soil” and gravel in southwest Austin—they have much in common, including ...

April 07, 2009 Wow! Just look at the bloom stalk the ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (A. ovatifolia ) is sending up! Have you ever seen anything like it before? No, neither have I. With tongue removed from cheek, here is an update on the ‘Macho Mocha’ mangave’s bloom stalk, still going ...

April 07, 2009 Wow! Just look at the bloom stalk the ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (A. ovatifolia ) is sending up! Have you ever seen anything like it before? No, neither have I. With tongue removed from cheek, here is an update on the ‘Macho Mocha’ mangave’s bloom stalk, still going ...

July 24, 2008 Our final stop on our early July visit to Chanticleer was the Cut Flower & Vegetable Garden. How sweet, green, and lush it appeared—like an April garden in Austin. Old-fashioned lovelies like hollyhocks (above) and sunflowers gave height to the rows of cutting flowers. Bent-twig arches also ...