Friday fun, a garden gift, and a birth announcement

December 04, 2015


Here’s the fun! This giant steel spider sculpture — it’s friendly, I think; notice the leg wave — can be found at Mueller neighborhood’s Southwest Greenway, my in-laws’ new neighborhood (which means I’ll be doing garden drive-bys in Mueller a lot more often). With a bellyful of blue and green gazing balls, Spiderzilla towers over my husband and daughter, even as they perch on a boulder.


More Friday fun — from last Friday, that is. On Black Friday, I snapped this shot through the kitchen window in honor of REI’s #OptOutside meme. Drizzly and cool, the day was perfect for curling up inside with a book, and even though I didn’t go hiking or, heaven forbid, snowboarding, I did enjoy the garden view.


Here’s the garden gift! The Travis County Master Gardeners gave me this beautiful canvas print of Lori Daul‘s photograph of my summer garden as a thank-you for participating in the Inside Austin Gardens Tour. How cool, right? I’m going to hang it in my office and enjoy that peaceful summer view all winter. Thank you, Lori and TCMG!


And here’s the birth announcement. My new book, The Water-Saving Garden, has been born! At a healthy 13 ounces and 233 pages long, an advance copy was delivered by stork yesterday evening. I’ve been lovingly rocking it ever since. OK, not really. (Maybe a little.)


I couldn’t be more excited, and I can’t wait to share it with you soon. Publication is set for February 23. While it won’t be available in time for the holidays, you could pre-order for someone and let the lucky recipient know it’ll arrive in time for spring garden planning. Just thinking aloud here…

Happy Friday, y’all!

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

55 responses to “Friday fun, a garden gift, and a birth announcement”

  1. Great photo from Lori and such a nice gift.

    Congrats on the new arrival. So exciting!!

  2. Jean says:

    How exciting! It looks really nice. Will preorder!

  3. I can’t wait to get my copy! Congratulations, Pam…wonderful wonderful!

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Tamara, thank you! You’ll see a few close-ups of your wonderful Chickadee Garden that I hope you’ll enjoy, especially since you’ll be leaving soon to start a new garden. —Pam

  4. Gail says:

    Wonderful news Pam! Congrats on the book.

  5. Alison says:

    Congrats on the new book! Looking forward to reading it. Bummed it won’t be out in time for the NWFGS here. I’m probably going to pre-order it.

  6. Heidi says:

    I enjoy your drive bys, so looking forward to more of those features. Congrats on the book, you’re now the proud momma of two! Your yard looks fantastic, love the string lights, guess I missed those before. Show us an evening shot with them on sometime;)

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Thanks for your comment about the Drive-By Gardens posts, Heidi. I hope to do more of those next year. I had fewer opportunities this year since I’ve been focusing more on writing than design work for a while, which means I’ve been at home a lot more. But I want to get back out and around in Austin to see what’s going on.

      Oh, and I do have one or two evening shots of the garden (click links), but I’ll try to remember to do a whole post about my party lighting next summer. —Pam

  7. Got it pre-ordered! Congratulations on your new baby : )

  8. Kris P says:

    Congratulations Pam! I look forward to reading your new book.

  9. Lovely, fun pics and congratulations on the book. I could do with something like that, but not as useful in my climate, I’d suspect.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      Cathy, I wrote it for anyone who’s interested in saving water through their landscaping/gardening practices, no matter where they live. While I anticipated that the most interested readers would be those who cope with drought or water shortages, there’s plenty of info for gardeners in rainier climates who must deal with water overflows and don’t want to pollute natural waterways with runoff. I hope you’ll give it a look when it comes out and let me know what you think! —Pam

  10. Mine’s pre-ordered and I can’t wait to see it!

  11. Andrea Whitely says:

    Congratulations…it WILL be a Best Seller!

  12. Melody McMahon says:

    Pam! So happy about the “birth” announcement! Can’t wait to meet you new little one in person!

  13. Helen says:

    Huge congrats on the book.
    I am curious as to what is on the fence to the left of the picture you were given, looks like a large word?

  14. peter schaar says:

    I’ve been anticipating this birth and will preorder soon. Congratulations, Pam! It looks to be a good companion to your first one.

  15. Wendy Moore says:

    WOOOHOOO! Can’t wait to get the book!! Congratulations!

  16. Anna K says:

    Fabulous – congratulations! On the wish list it goes… 🙂

  17. Looks like a fabulous week for you, Pam. Congrats on the new little one. It’s going on my Christmas wish list today!

  18. Congratulations on your new baby. What a beautiful baby.

  19. Denise says:

    Nice to hear some good news for a change! Big congrats on all counts, Pam.

  20. My pre-order has been in for months:) Congratulations, and I can’t wait to have it in my hands!

  21. Xericstyle says:

    So exciting! Congratulations, Pam!
    I pre-ordered and I cannot wait to get my copy soon 🙂

  22. Congratulations, Pam! And that photo of your garden is beautiful. Cheers!

  23. Katina says:

    Can’t wait for the book to come out! and I love the idea of printing one of the promo photos as a thank you.

  24. commonweeder says:

    Wonderful post – love that spider! And wonderful news. Congratulations of getting the new book out. I loved Lawn Gone and we are working very hard on that project.

  25. I just preordered your book – I now know anything by you is wonderful and necessary to read – and found out I’d already preordered it. Now if it will only show up. And, by the way, how do you sign a Kindle version? I have to have ebooks since I live homeless and everything has to fit in my Honda Fit between national wildlife refuge gigs.

    Loved the picture you received. Well earned.

    • Pam/Digging says:

      That’s very flattering, Marilyn. Thank you for the pre-order! It won’t be shipped until the official publication date, 2/23, but that’s not too far off now.

      Man, there should be a way to sign a Kindle version! Next e-invention needed. 🙂

      Happy traveling! —Pam

  26. Les says:

    Congratulations on the new book. I hope it flies off the shelves and a second printing is called for.