Lively formality in the garden of Deborah Hornickel

July 06, 2015


If you admired the beautiful details of James David’s grand Rollingwood garden, which I had the privilege of visiting last spring, you may have wondered what a smaller, more economically built garden of his might look like. And I’m here to show you, thanks to James’s longtime friend, Deborah Hornickel, who kindly let me photograph her Bryker Woods garden last week.

Deborah’s garden is 24 years old, and she attributes to James “all of the credit for the design of my garden starting back in 1991.” I first visited her garden in 2006 and again in 2010 during the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days tour, on which her garden will again be included this October.

From the street to the front porch, a double line of round and teardrop-shaped boxwood topiaries marches along a narrow limestone walk, giving formal structure and a strong leading line for the eye to follow. But the formal symmetry is subverted to the right and left thanks to towering sunflowers, layers of small trees (desert willow and pruned-up loropetalum), and a large, strappy yucca or nolina.


Halfway down the walk, a side path leads left through clipped boxwood to a bench hidden near the shrub-screened property line.


By the porch, pink crinums are finishing up while a dark-leaved canna offers a rich color echo.


Looking back along the front walk, the widely spaced topiaries lead your eye firmly but playfully to the street — and a neighbor’s perfectly positioned tree. Wouldn’t it be awesome if they put in a complementary garden at the base of that tree? (Sometimes one can only dream of gardening neighbors.)


Deborah’s porch is enticing, with a pair of narrow pots overflowing with silver ponyfoot (Dichondra argentea) and a stainless steel bench displaying a collection of potted cacti and succulents. A green-black door contrasts with the pale celery green of the house.


Terracotta pots unify the collection.


More pots sit along the walk by the porch.


On the shady, east-facing porch, a mantel-like limestone table holds hurricane candles and a striking begonia.


A concrete walk runs along the front porch from the driveway, and Deborah has made a focal point at the end to terminate the view: a tall, terracotta pot filled with Jewels of Opar.


The driveway doubles as a path to the rear garden and offers a view of the porch across a plane of clipped boxwood.


Specimen plants are tucked in here and there, like this Texas dwarf palmetto (Sabal minor) and variegated American agave.


It’s not often I get to say this, but I love the view between the side of the house and the pea-graveled driveway. A russet-and-green-leaved Japanese maple is color-echoed by oakleaf hydrangeas (Hydrangea quercifolia) with faded blossoms. The detached garage, which functions as an open carport, looks to be painted the same charcoal-green as the front door.


Let’s stop to admire the Japanese maple and oakleaf hydrangea combo. The maple is underplanted with prostrate yew, also known as Japanese plum yew (Cephalotaxus harringtonia ‘Prostrata’), whose shiny, deep-green needles offer a pleasing contrast. I really need to plant this slow-growing, shade-loving, deer-resistant evergreen in my own garden.


Looking back toward the front garden


The long view down the driveway reveals a row of pruned-up ‘Blue Ice’ Arizona cypress trees. Click through to my 2006 visit to Deborah’s garden for a view of these trees before they were pruned up. They are lovely trees, and although the lower limbs had to be pruned up to allow passage, the scaly trunks and blue-green needles overhead create a woodsy Colorado vibe. I like the mix of loose and clipped shrubs beneath them too.


To access the back garden, you pass through the carport/garage, which is also Deborah’s potting shed, and enter a comfortably furnished covered porch.


Deborah is very selective with regard to garden adornment. Each piece counts and is never crowded by another.


She likes a few quirky touches as well, like this skull planter.


The porch commands a view of the entire back garden: fire-pit patio, buffet table, and pond on the left; Bradford pear allee in the middle; and rectangular lawn on the right.


The patchwork-paver patio is Deborah’s latest addition. Jackson Broussard and James David worked together on the patio design, Deborah told me.


It reminds me of Tait Moring’s patchwork path.


Four chairs cluster around a circular steel table. When the lid comes off, it doubles as a fire pit. The fire pit is Jackson’s design, and you can see more of his work in my post about a Rollingwood garden he designed.


A circular boxwood hedge once enclosed a stock-tank pond. But when it eventually corroded Deborah replaced it with a simple bird bath. Notice the strong line of clipped boxwood along the edge of the gravel patio. It “holds back” a shrub bed approximately 10 feet wide along the property line, which makes a buffering green wall around the garden’s living spaces.


A wider view


A limestone-slab table by the umbrella holds a couple of potted plants and a bowl of shells. Perhaps it gets put to use during parties.


Seashells and slag glass make a pretty combo.


Deborah’s back porch. I love her house colors. The window in the dark wall looks into the garage/potting shed.


A gravelly planting bed sits just off the porch, containing a crepe myrtle and an assortment of potted plants.


Echeverias in an oval pot resemble water lilies floating in a pond. The metal dachshund is a boot scraper.


The main hallway of the garden is an allee of Bradford pears espaliered on a rebar framework into a long tunnel. This axis is aligned with the back door of the house, creating a strong indoor-outdoor connection.


But before we walk down it, let’s look right to another seating area behind the garage. Wire panels atop steel poles make a sheltering trellis over the space. A frameless mirror mimics a window and reflects candlelight at night. A grill occupies the outer edge.


Candelabras hang over the table for nighttime enjoyment.


There are also lights — cafe-style string lights — running the length of the pear allee. A potted cardboard palm (Zamia furfuracea) on a stone plinth terminates the view.


Deborah says this beautiful plant (not actually a palm) requires protection from winter freezes. The grassy plants on either side, which have speckled, narrow leaves, may be Aspidistra minutiflora ‘Leopard’.


The right side of the garden is devoted to a cool, green lawn, anchored by a simple, chalky urn atop a cylindrical pedestal. Clipped boxwood lines this side as well, with a deep shrub border along the property line.


Looking left, you see a glimpse of the rebar structure that helped train the pears when they were young and supple. A blue bench is positioned in the shade for a view of a pond.


Looking back toward the house


This contemporary, poured-concrete pond was built as a replacement for the original stock-tank pond. The tall plant is Thalia dealbata.


I believe that’s ‘Alphonse Karr’ bamboo (Bambusa multiplex ‘Alphonse Karr’) behind it. A long steel pipe extends from the boxwood hedge to pour a recirculating stream of water into the pond…


…where water lilies bloom and colorful fish swim.


From the back you see how the pipe is supported.


I am smitten with this pond and the surrounding plants. There’s a sense of openness, but subtropical lushness too.


Deborah has been generous in sharing her garden with Austin over the years, putting it on tour many times. Of James David, her friend who’s helped her with the design for a quarter-century, Deborah says simply, “He is the most talented and creative mind I have ever known, and I am beyond fortunate to have had his assistance.”

My thanks to Deborah for sharing her gorgeous garden with me once again! If you’d like to see it too, it’ll be on tour through Garden Conservancy Open Days on October 17. But I do hope you’ll also save room on your tour schedule that day to see my own garden (very different from Deborah’s) and the other gardeners’ gardens on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour — yep, on the same day.

All material © 2006-2015 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

26 responses to “Lively formality in the garden of Deborah Hornickel”

  1. This garden is very neat, clean cut. Nice.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      I like the contrast between the formal lines of hedging and the exuberant plants in Deborah’s collection of pots and those set loose in the front garden. —Pam

  2. Lori says:

    Ohhh, I love that new pond. I was under the impression the pear allee was going to come down so an addition could be made to the house. Did that not happen? The back porch seems different, so it’s hard for me to tell.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      An addition at the back of the house was finished a few years ago, as I recall. It didn’t impact the allee so far as I know. And yes, the covered back porch was added then. —Pam

  3. Charles says:

    This is my favorite Austin garden. I love the combo of gravel and clipped boxwoods. Small, intimate and very, very well designed. I strive for this in my own garden! Have you seen the prostrate yew in Austin? Thanks for the lovely photos. Charles

  4. gina Harlow says:

    Love this garden, Pam. Thank you for sharing it with us.

  5. Beautiful. Thanks for the tour.

  6. A very pleasing pond indeed! And the July 4 Crocosmia fireworks were terrific too! I very much enjoyed the Fling virtual tour last week and will rejoin you after a couple of weeks in mountain country — it’s fun to get to revisit the cool weather flora in July!

  7. The words “stock-tank pond/eventually corroded” sent shivers up my spine. Did she say how long that took? I guess replacing our pond tank would be the easiest. The ones with bamboo (5!) would/are going to be a nightmare…

    • Pam/Digging says:

      I believe she said it happened around the 10-year mark, Loree. I know Philip at East Side Patch had one corrode much sooner than that, but I’m hoping that was a freak problem with the galvanizing process. For the record, I have an old tank, used as a pond in my former garden, that lives on as a planter in my current garden, with no sign of corrosion that I can see. I’ve had it for at least 12 years, if not longer. —Pam

  8. Melody McMahon says:

    Pam, I smiled when I saw the sunflower in Deborah’s front yard because one came up in my rose garden area this year and I left it. The birds love the seeds so much I didn’t have the heart to remove it! It was fun to see this yard again as I’ve been there for one of the tours. The back yard is amazing and so full of good ideas to copy!
    P.S.
    Your wavy cactus is making new pads and has found a happy home! Thanks for many years to come!

    • Pam/Digging says:

      I’m glad the wavy cactus is at home in your garden, Melody. That came to me from a friend in LA, who brought it home from Austin. So it’s been around! —Pam

  9. TexasDeb says:

    I rarely take time to go back and revisit all previous tours of a garden, even though you typically (thoughtfully) provide links. This morning, smug after hours (and hours) of weeding paths I took a break from my more typical habit of dashing outside first thing and instead went though each of your tours of this marvelous garden.

    You know what? You were always good at this, but you are definitely getting even better. The angles, the composition of shots, the logical progression working through each area and providing views from each vantage points, along with tidbits of information that allow each reader to feel an “insider”.

    You make it look easy post to post, but you really do a lot that makes these virtual garden
    tours work so well for the viewer/reader. Hats and gloves off to you!

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Practice makes…well, not perfect, but a lot better! I was a brand-new blogger in 2006 when I first toured and posted about Deborah’s garden. Nine years makes for lots of practice time. 🙂 Thanks for your kind words, Deb, and for taking the time to read back through my older posts. I always like to provide links for whoever is interested in seeing more. It’s so easy for older blog posts to just disappear into the ether of the Internet. —Pam

    • Pam/Digging says:

      I should also point out that for this visit, compared to my earlier ones, I had the significant benefit of a private tour in the morning on a cloudy day — no harsh sunlight or crowds, which are the challenges of photographing during a public tour. —Pam

  10. Denise says:

    Sounds like Oct would be the perfect time for a visit to Austin! I love David’s work and seeing his response to different sites. Fantastic tour, Pam.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      October IS a great time for garden visits in Austin, Denise. It’s our second spring, and maybe even better than spring for we have the subtropicals up and blooming as well. I hope you’re going to surprise me with an October visit! But if you come in time for the 10/17 tour, please plan to stay over a few days afterward so I’ll have time to visit with you. I’ll be busy prepping beforehand. 🙂 —Pam

  11. Much in this garden. But what grabs me most is the space with the orange umbrella, incredible limestone table, and on to the bosque of trees and water feature. Something about that table, framed by the hedges and the gravel sitting area.

  12. I am ready to move in. I love the pear allee and the three linked spaces it makes. I never would have thought of an allee in the middle of the garden like that.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      It’s a terrific feature, especially lined up with the back door so it draws you outside. Now that I think of it, Tom Spencer, another Austin gardener, also had an allee down the middle of his garden, with the unusual choice of bald cypress! Here’s a post about his garden; scroll down for the allee. —Pam