Drive-By Gardens: Home with the armadillo on South Lamar
“All the fun of a real armadillo family with no unpleasant aftertaste,” is how the artist at 20 Digit Design describes his steel creatures. I’ve rubbernecked at these fun armadillo sculptures many a time while driving down South Lamar Boulevard toward Mockingbird Domestics, one of my favorite home-goods shops. On Wednesday I finally stopped at the Post South Lamar apartment/retail complex to take a few pics.
“Armadillo Family” captures the not-so-charming-in-real-life-but-plenty-cute-in-art behavior of a digging armadillo.
The other armadillo sculptures are more fanciful. I love the humor of “Planter Invading Armadillo,” standing on his hindquarters with his head hidden in a stand of horsetail reed. What an awesome, curving steel planter too.
He seems to be trying to peek through at the patio diners sitting behind the horsetail screen.
“Hey, darlin’, how are yew?” “Oh, I cain’t complain.”
“Talking Armadillos” are fully anthropomorphized, standing erect and jawing like co-workers at the water cooler. I’d totally put any of these in my own garden. So much better than the real thing, which regularly tear up my garden beds, although they are cute.
The plaza planters are nice too. Check out this gigantic steel bowl planted with a Yucca rostrata, two whale’s tongue agaves, asparagus fern, and cool-weather pansies.
Another view
Surprisingly, there’s even some chard in there!
Around the northern perimeter of the plaza, a mix of mostly xeric plants in a variety of blue and bronze pots screens the street view.
At the southern end, next to a restaurant’s outdoor seating, I admired this arrangement of Yucca rostrata, sago palm, and what looks like bicolor iris, all underplanted nicely with perennial groundcovers like trailing purple lantana and silver ponyfoot and some sort of annual color. Sorry I don’t respect you more, annual color, but you look pretty good here.
Oh, and if you’re not from Texas and are wondering about my blog title, take a listen to “London Homesick Blues.”
All material © 2006-2015 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Weird and wacky, as befits Austin. They really bring a smile to the face! And the containers are awesome. Surely everything must be well-secured in some way to keep thieves from taking off with them? I think more public spaces would look more like this if not for that to consider.
I would imagine so, Lara. Most of them are too large to easily make off with anyway. —Pam
All that steel is fabulous. I think it is the material that allows the sculptures to be both humorous and elegant.
I agree, Ricki. Steel is one of my favorite garden-decor materials. —Pam
I am so proud of my steel armadillo fabricated in Texas by Bobby Varley.
Not so proud of the armadillo holes around the garden, we keep a trap set all the time. We’ve caught a couple of possums, a squirrel or two, the cat once or twice and a skunk. Everybody was liberated except the numerous armadillos who finally wander in.
Armadillos can really do a number on a garden, especially when the soil is soft and plants are new. They are awfully cute though. —Pam
Those armadillos could come to my garden anytime. They are fun. Those big pots look amazing. The scale is perfect for this setting.
Yes, it’s all very eye-catching from the street too. —Pam
And suddenly I’m deeply grateful our actual armadillos are on the small size (at least compared to the sculptures shown). The damage they cause can be pretty oversized but as nearly everybody agrees – they are just odd and whimsical enough to get away with raiding our soil substrates for snacks.
Those plantings are nicely done, especially considering the difficulties of scale encountered in such a setting. I’m a fan of cheater plants (what I call the various “annual color” offerings) under certain circumstances. I especially enjoy dianthus which can be more perennial as it plays hide and seek depending on the heat of the season.
What I realized last year was how pretty our native evening primrose plants can be in a planter come December. As the evenings cool the brightening red and pink tones of the foliage is perfection against succulents.
It’s purely a failure of imagination on my part, Deb, that I don’t love annuals more. Your appreciation inspires me to give them more of a chance. And yes, evening primrose looks pretty in containers. I enjoyed it at the Wildflower Center’s stock tank garden one year. —Pam
It looks to be a lot more fun to walk your city streets than it is to stroll the streets of Los Angeles, Pam!
Oh, I’m sure L.A. has plenty of interesting places too, Kris. A blog just condenses them, as if they were all in one city block. 😉 —Pam
I must say, those are maybe the cutest armadillos I’ve seen lately. Love that huge round planter, too.
We were at Gruene Hall Friday night, to see Jerry Jeff….and, of course he sang “London Homesick Blues”. Still a fun song.
That’s one of my favorite places to hear Texas singer-songwriters. I bet it was a good show. —Pam
I love your drive-by postings. I get to go places I have never been before. Wow! The only word for those planters. Ask them if they need a home for those whale’s tongues when they get too big for the pot. I’ll give them a good home.
They couldn’t ask for a happier home than your garden, Jenny. —Pam
Art installations like those armadillos always remind me of what differentiates artists from regular folks. Imagine how boring they would be if they were just shaped like real armadillos
Not only did the armadillos bring a smile to my face, but I also enjoyed your puns. “Cain’t complain” was especially witty, if not for thinking it was a spelling error, I wouldn’t have even caught it. Lol
I’m glad you enjoyed the armadillos as much as I did, Paulo. They make me smile.
The “how are yew” and “cain’t complain” was my attempt at writing the twang and syntax of a certain generation of Texas women. I can hear it in my head as I write this. 🙂 —Pam