My next stop on the Houston Open Days tour on March 24 was the clean-lined Lofgren-Bayer Garden, also located in the close-in Montrose neighborhood. Pictured above is a lovely dining patio in the rear garden. The official description of the garden:

A stately live oak dominates this Arts and Crafts bungalow and garden located in the urban neighborhood of Montrose. Composed of a series of intimate and beautifully curated spaces, the attention to detail found in this garden expresses the sensibilities and expertise of the owners, both long-time gardeners and proficient craftsmen. Landscape architect Mark McKinnon was called in to help with the spatial organization and expansion of the plant palette.

By the way, the landscape architect they used, Mark McKinnon, is the owner of the first garden I visited, the Cortlandt Garden (with the “watchtower”).

You enter the front garden from the side, stepping up past stacked-stone retaining walls.

Charming rosettes of echeveria and other succulents are tucked into the gravel, in front of a low boxwood hedge along the top of the walls.

Foxtail fern in a contemporary concrete saucer planter welcomes you.

Terracotta sculpture beckons you toward the front porch steps.

Xeric plants in attractive terracotta pots are tucked here and there on the porch.

And the subdued, natural color palette of the porch seating and accessories makes this a calm, masculine space.

Porch decor

A large, spreading live oak that shelters the front yard grows just outside a vine-covered trellis-fence that offers privacy but not total screening of the street.

The long, narrow front yard is given over to a lawnette of grass.

Things get more interesting in the narrow side-passage to the rear garden. While this is still a low-maintenance palette of plants, they are grown in creative ways. A low boxwood hedge dodges in to add interest and break up the bowling-alley effect. Burgundy-leaved loropetalum is espaliered up the house wall on the right and a metal trellis-fence on the left for vertical blocks of color. Boxwood balls and loose, open shrubs offer contrasting shapes. The result is a low-maintenance but interesting side garden.

Espaliered loropetalum

A galvanized stool and watering can and barbed-wire orb add tactile ornament to the end of the path.

A spherical clipped boxwood, elevated on stacked stone, is made into a focal point.

Rounding the back of the house you enter a dining patio arched over with a steel arbor and simply edged with boxwood.

On the table a line of potted ghost plants makes an attractive runner.

And directly off the back doors (I’d be afraid of falling in!) is a 6-foot-deep pond, home to a handful of enormous koi. One of the owners is an enthusiast who attends koi conventions. The other owner told us, when he found out we’re from Austin, that his garden was inspired by the Tex-Zen garden of Austin’s Hotel San Jose. “Not with the same plants, of course,” he added. I could see it.

Up next: The Tudor Garden. For a look back at the J. Green Garden, click here.

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

On our way home from Big Bend last weekend, we cruised through Marfa for lunch and a quick look around town. When we spotted the Thunderbird Hotel’s Capri Lounge, an event space and former Army storage hangar, we stopped to tour the Christy Ten Eyck-designed garden surrounding it.

The garden combines minimalist, salvaged-industrial architecture with native plants including yucca, bur oak, agarita, agave, Texas mountain laurel, and grama and other grasses. Take a look at this picture…

…and compare it to this one. This is Ten Eyck’s personal garden in Austin. See any similarities? Smaller scale, softened by lusher vegetation, but recognizable, no? I love this water feature and was thrilled to see a larger version (minus the negative edge) in the Marfa garden.

Back to Marfa, where gabion walls shelter and define the large gathering space just outside the doors.

Shimmery globes of Yucca rostrata anchor a raised bed behind a low concrete wall that functions as additional seating.

Boulders protect an island of native plants under a young shade tree.

Agave (neomexicana?), agarita in bloom, and a tawny grass combine for a dynamic pocket garden.

Close-up of the agarita

I could imagine sitting here under the stars, listening to a band play.

There’s plenty of room for dancing too.

Heading to the rear garden, past the rectangular pool…

…you enter a more densely planted space—a man-made savannah punctuated by small trees and divided into several intimate rooms…

…each with its own Corten fire pit.

Around some you’d need to stand, as no seats are provided.

Around others you’d be able to sit, council-ring style, on large, flat boulders. Wouldn’t this be a great design for a sunny back yard in Austin? But why hasn’t anyone cut back the fall-blooming grasses yet?

Across the street, by the hotel store, stood an ocotillo fence, which fascinated me after all the ocotillo we’d seen blooming in Big Bend.

An old hotel sign…

…and colorful bikes for rent added their own laid-back charm to the scene.

We didn’t stay long enough to get a good sense of Marfa, which from an Austin perspective seems our west Texas sister city, only smaller, artier, and somehow more hip (probably too hip for me and my family). But I did really enjoy seeing this garden and can imagine something similar working for us here in central Texas.

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

The Little House Garden—the children’s garden—beckoned on our way out of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center last Friday afternoon. The child-sized door leads to the Little House, a craft and educational room for kids; the open wooden door leads to a small courtyard with a vine tepee, large pots in which to dig for plastic insects, and a little native garden to explore.

A grasshopper weathervane adds charm to a cluster of flame acanthus (Anisacanthus quadrifidus var. wrightii).

A birdhouse attracts feathered friends.

A rugged vine tepee invites play. In previous years, the tepee has been made of flexible limbs. It’s charming either way.

Well, well, this is new! Behind the Little House, an native edible garden has been created since I was last here. It’s in full, blowsy glory right now, with ornamental grasses in bloom, sunflowers bent under the weight of their seeds, and chile pequin peppers (Capsicum annuum) reddening on the bush. That’s a rainwater collection cistern in the background, hooked up to the gutter from the roof.

Peppers! These are hot, hot, hot, as hot as habaneros, I’ve read.

Birds love them too and are unaffected by their spiciness.

We had a wonderful time at the Wildflower Center, as always. Fall is a great time to visit, so pop on over when you have time or are in town for a visit.

To see my first post in this series, about the entry garden, woodland garden, and Hill Country Stream, click here. For my second post, about the Wildflower Center’s demonstration garden, click here.

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