I am having such a good time in the garden right now. And by right now I mean the past few weeks. My annual Valentine’s Day cut-back of the garden spruced things up and revealed the structure of the garden again, just before spring revs up lush growth. This ‘Queen Victoria’ agave sits below the big ‘Whale’s Tongue’ in the back garden’s raised bed, dapper with white pinstripes along olive-green leaves. That’s a ‘Chocolate Chips’ manfreda to the left of the sun person.

On the other side of the garden I stopped to admire the Koosh-ball form of the Yucca rostrata ‘Sapphire Skies’. The big slab of limestone is the Lion King rock, for those who remember the name my daughter bestowed upon it when we moved in.

Out front, the young ‘Warren’s Red’ possumhaw holly, a native deciduous holly, is studded with crimson berries. It’s caged to prevent deer from rubbing their antlers on it or sampling the young branches.

I noticed a mockingbird gorging on the berries yesterday morning. Soon they’ll be gone, but that’s OK. New leaves will appear any day, now that spring is here.

Bigger changes are afoot in the front garden. You may remember that I had nearly all the remaining lawn removed a few weeks ago, and check this out! My darling, adorable family toiled for a couple of hours last weekend to help me move 6 yards of composted soil into the new beds. They were even smiling!

Did I mention that I bribed the young’uns with a boost to their allowance? Yes, I did. It worked too.

Everyone should have a couple of teenagers and a hubby lying around for the purpose of moving dirt.

I’ve been planting all week, whenever I can spare an hour or two from my office. So. Much. Fun. Wherever you are, I hope you too will be planting soon—or already are.

All material © 2006-2013 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

I took a fire-wise landscaping class at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center last week, and I arrived early enough for a leisurely stroll around the gardens. The sunshine and blooming Mexican plums promised spring, but a chill in the air spoke of winter. By the time I went inside, my hands were numb. Even so, I loved being able to photograph the gardens in the light of early morning. Ordinarily you can’t get in until 9 am, well after the “magic hour” for taking photos.

In the parking lot my eye was caught by a Mexican plum (Prunus mexicana) in full bloom. Its spicy-scented white blossoms were backlit so beautifully.

As were these seedheads, the light tracing each stem with glowing incandescence.

Turning toward the wooded path that leads through the parking lot, I admired this vignette of Anacacho orchid tree, yucca, and nolina, all suffused in the golden light of morning.

I always take a photo of this pairing of American agave and Mexican feathergrass. Simple yet stunning.

A weatherbeaten Texas persimmon (Diospyros texana) stands sentinel along the main walk.

Inside, the shadows lay long on the entry plaza, but the Wildflower Center’s landmark spiral tower, visible to the right, was spotlit by the rising sun.

A possumhaw holly (Ilex decidua) in full winter berry accents the base of the tower.

The architecture of the place always fascinates me. Check out the planter pocket built into the tower wall.

Another view, with wire-suspended beams acting as a pergola.

On the back side of the tower, a terraced, rocky garden of agave, opuntia, sotol, and Mexican feathergrass creates a scene of xeric beauty.

Lindheimer muhly grasses (Muhlenbergia lindheimeri), their fall blooms still held aloft, screen the cafe’s patio seating. In front, wildflowers and perennials are starting to green up at their feet.

Looking toward the Hill Country stream garden, bare trees accent a green understory of yucca and nolina.

Glancing back toward the tower again

Heading into the sunny demonstration garden, I strolled under the long grape arbor, as I always do. But on this cold morning there was no need of shade.

Looking left, I admired a magnificent Harvard agave (Agave harvardiana), framed by the limestone-and-cedar shade structure in the background.

Its Mickey Mouse ears warmed by the sun, a spineless prickly pear is all texture and shape.

A patch of Habiturf lawn is on display. Habiturf is the Wildflower Center’s own ecological lawn mix of short, slow-growing native grasses, which can be sown by seed to create a lawn that needs little water and only occasional mowing. (Click the link for more info, including the very specific installation instructions.)

I was invited to take off my shoes and walk on it barefoot, but the morning was too chilly for that.

At this time of year, you really notice the architecture of the gardens, not just the plants—like this rustic cedar gate.

Looking across the still-shadowed demonstration garden

The new Texas Arboretum—”where visitors can learn about the diversity of Texas trees”—has opened since I last visited, but I ventured only as far as the entry since I was running short on time. I’ll have to come back later in the spring. This is another Texas persimmon.

For rugged screening and fencing, you can’t go wrong with a coyote fence. So very central Texas. I like how this one is cut at different levels, becoming more welcoming, at picket-fence height, on the side you approach from.

Each cedar post (juniper, to be precise) is encircled with sturdy wire that’s attached to two cables running horizontally along the fence. Those metal pipes along part of the fence must be for extra stability.

In the kids’ Little House garden, a vine “tepee” is given a twist. Instead of bamboo poles, an upturned cedar trunk and branches provides the structure.

As I was about to enter the auditorium for my class, a staff member asked if I’d seen their visitor, and pointed up at a planter niche built high on the wall near the entry pond. I immediately knew he was referring to a great horned owl because I’d seen one raising chicks in that same spot two years ago. Sure enough, there was Mama owl, snuggled into her usual spot under a Wheeler sotol.

The employee said they thought it was the same owl, and that this is her third year to nest in that spot.

If you didn’t know she was there, you might never notice. See her up there? If you go see her in person, walk softly and carry binoculars for a better view.

All material © 2006-2013 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

You’ve all been very good this year, and Santa says there’s time for one more garden tour before Christmas, so here you go. I visited this garden in late October, at the invitation of owner/designer Tait Moring, who had it all spruced up for a busload of folks from the Garden Club of America. Lucky (pushy) me—I arrived early, before the bus rolled in, and was treated to an unhurried personal tour. What a relaxed host! Some of you may remember that I posted about Tait’s garden in the spring of 2011, when it was on the Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour. He’s made some changes since then, of course, and it was also a treat to see the garden in a different season.

Pictured above is the front entry of Tait’s home, which is located in Westlake right off busy Bee Caves Road. Tucked behind a tall screen of cedar posts and greenery, you’d never know the home (and design office) is hidden away just off the road, a surprisingly spacious property that overlooks a forested canyon. The modest, painted-brick ranch has a clean-lined, concrete front porch set off by a raised pond and fountain cloaked in fig ivy.

On the front porch, a collection of pots attracted my attention. The largest was appealingly top-dressed with colorful glass beads.

These smaller pots, made by local artist Rick Van Dyke, resemble dinosaur eggs. I’ve seen Van Dyke pots for sale recently at The Great Outdoors. (Adding to Christmas wish list…)

A wider view of the front of the house. Tait has a generous decomposed-granite parking area for guests and clients. The rock wall at left of the house has a gate that leads to the private back garden.

A trio of giant hesperaloe in tall, bronze pots balances an asymmetrical window, and a fourth pot concludes the line just past the window. A meadowy mix of two species of ornamental grasses softens the base of a low wall.

I really love this and am tempted to steal the idea.

The rock wall includes a triangular niche.

Found objects and rocky treasures are tucked among the mortared stones, becoming part of the wall too.

Step through the gate and you enter the back garden, which includes a lawn leading to a new swimming pool. Previously a ramada-shaded patio stood at the end of the lawn, but Tait decided a swimming pool was needed to get through Austin’s long, hot summers. (I totally agree, whether you swim in your own back-yard pool, Barton Springs, or one of the many city pools; cool water up to the neck is essential.) Tait told me he got a little grief during one of his garden tours about having a lawn, but he likes it for the entertaining space and says it’s pretty low maintenance. To my mind, these are perfect reasons to keep some lawn: you’ve reduced it to what you use, you keep it for a definite purpose, and you’ve planted a lawn grass that doesn’t need coddling. His lawn is a soothing, cooling counterpoint to the rest of the property, which is either planted heavily with natives and adapted plants or, along the canyon’s edge, left wild and natural.

A fall-blooming daisy tumbles around a birdbath in one of the planted borders.

Looking back, I stopped to admire the curved cedar post that arches over the gate. Such interesting touches add so much delight to the exploration of Tait’s garden. On this side the wall shelters a small seating area.

Tait told me an interesting story about his stone columns (he has several; for a front view of the carved detailing, scroll up a few pictures). He and his crew were digging around in an old quarry on a Hill Country ranch where they were doing some work when one of his crew spotted the carved stone lying amid the rubble. They pulled it out and found this treasure—well, several of them. Who knows how long they’d been lying abandoned in the quarry, and he wishes he knew something about their history. But now they adorn his garden, standing like door posts on either side of the lawn, topped with terracotta bowls of agave and silver ponyfoot. The pink vine climbing the column is mandevilla, a tropical vine that needs winter protection.

From the middle of the lawn, looking back, you see the side of Tait’s house, with a row of native Lindheimer muhly grasses softening the foundation.

A closer look

And a wider view

Tucked into the shady border alongside the lawn, amid Salvia coccinea, holly fern, river fern, and ivy, a fountain bubbles up out of a drilled stone.

The rectangular pool is backed by an irregular stone wall topped with staggered-height cedar-pole fencing and softened with lush, tropical-looking plants, giving the space a Mexican or South American vibe.

A tiki-style stone-head planter atop another carved column from the quarry adds to the sense of tropical mystery, as do bromeliads atop the wall.

Some of the tropical-looking plants along the wall are actually quite hardy and drought tolerant, like feathery bamboo muhly (Muhlenbergia dumosa) and giant hesperaloe (Hesperaloe funifera).

Just past the pool (you can see the house in the distance), cedar-mulched paths lead through the trees along the canyon’s edge, and down into the canyon too, as far as Tait’s had time to work on them. This small clearing provided a place for a colorful hammock strung between two cedar (juniper) trees.

Seven-foot-tall mounds of native daisies were in flower along the path, especially where the tree canopy was thinner. It was amazing to walk through these golden berms.

This trail led past one of the special features of Tait’s property: a beautiful, old Texas madrone (Arbutus xalapensis), more commonly found in the Hill Country to the west. Its smooth, white trunks seemed to glow under the leafy canopy. Texas madrone is picky about where it grows in ways not fully understood. Tait said that although he’s cleared out a bunch of cedar (juniper) trees in this area, he left the ones around the madrone. He’d heard of a rancher who cleared out the cedars around a colony of madrones only to watch the madrones die as a result. Perhaps there’s a symbiotic relationship underground, in the roots and the living soil?

I had to reach out and stroke the madrone’s smooth bark.

Just past the madrone, at the canyon’s edge, the trees open to this—a stunning Hill Country view. With rock found on his property, Tait built a stone circle with a fire pit in the middle, which overlooks the canyon. Because of the ongoing drought and burn ban, he hasn’t used it once, he said. But he built it, he explained, as an expression of hope that one day the drought would end and the rains would return. Fire or not, the stone circle is a lovely place to sit and take in the view.

I spotted a pretty cluster of frostweed (Verbesina virginica) on the walk back to the house.

More trails lead from the gardens down into the canyon.

A stone retaining wall marks the boundary between garden and wildscape. A berrying yaupon holly straddles the wall.

Moving around to the other side of Tait’s garden, an ornately wrought, nature-themed gate set between stout cedar posts leads to…

…a vegetable garden that stair-steps along the canyon’s edge. Beautiful stonework defines raised beds…

…and stairs back up to the house. Behind the cedar-pole screen at the top of the stairs is a rustic outdoor shower.

At the back of the house, a patchwork path made up of paving samples leads past the outdoor shower to a back deck.

The small deck overlooks the canyon and looks back to the lawn garden too.

Another Rick Van Dyke pot, planted with pencil plant (Euphorbia tirucalli), sits on a table.

A wider gate, matching the one that leads to the vegetable garden, separates one end of the driveway from a work area in back.

Snake detail

A fountain made of an industrial-looking steel pipe and a stock tank helps to drown out traffic noise along the street-side of the garden.

And a focal-point pot in the center of a small, circular lawn backed by bamboo and cedar trees offers an interesting vignette right before you leave.

I’m grateful to Tait for this tour of his beautiful and fascinating garden. What a treat! For more images of Tait’s garden click for my spring 2011 visit.

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