New shade sails and other garden goodness
May 05, 2017 We’ve always wanted shade for our deck, which is one of the few spots in our yard not overhung by live oaks. Facing south, it gets blasted by the Death Star all day long, and even our kitchen table overlooking the deck gets unpleasantly toasty by midafternoon ...
Three more gardens on Inside Austin Gardens Tour 2017
May 04, 2017 I’ve already posted about two of the gardens on this Saturday’s Inside Austin Gardens Tour, and today I’m showing a sneak peek of three more private gardens on the tour. Garden of Dorothy Thering Gardening on 23 acres in Spicewood, Dorothy Thering has room for a spacious ...
Cottage garden meets Zen garden: Inside Austin Gardens Tour 2017
May 03, 2017 Ever get the hankering to have two different styles of gardens at once? Daphne Jeffers — whose east Austin garden will be on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour this Saturday, May 6 — made it happen, with a flowery cottage garden out front and, in a surprising ...
Playful, found-object art garden of Shari Bauer: Inside Austin Gardens Tour 2017
May 02, 2017 Last weekend I was invited to visit (along with other garden bloggers) the 5 private gardens that’ll be on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour this Saturday, May 6. Hosted by the Travis County Master Gardeners, the tour typically features homeowner-designed and -maintained gardens rather than fancy designer ...
Turning a neighborhood median strip into a garden
April 18, 2017 A few years ago I toured Colleen Jamison’s beautiful garden in central-west Austin, and a few days ago I had the pleasure of a revisit. It is still wonderful! But here’s what wowed me before I even stepped foot in her garden: a median strip down the ...
Let’s take a walk around the garden
April 10, 2017 Live oak leaf and pollen season is finally over, and the patios are clean again, hallelujah! This calls for a spring garden stroll, so let’s go. I’ve been playing with a squid theme on one wall of the upper patio. A couple of tentacle pots from Tentacle ...
Gorgeous flowering of a pond iris and more
March 27, 2017 As buds began to swell last week, I’ve been eagerly awaiting the flowering of my pond iris. And this morning, three burgundy, yellow-throated flowers unfurled. They look especially picturesque as viewed against the turquoise shed doors. Several more buds mean more flowers to come. Jenny/Rock Rose gave ...
Early flowerliciouness in Austin this spring
February 23, 2017 Purple oxalis flowers delicately echo its purple leaves Texas redbuds, Texas mountain laurel, spiderwort, and even some bluebonnets are surprising Austinites this spring with early blooming. I can usually count on sniffing the grape Kool-Aid-scented blossoms of Texas mountain laurel well into mid-March, but they may be ...
Purple pom-poms and stripey leaves
December 01, 2016 I’m drinking up this grapey, effervescent combo of ‘Grapes’ gomphrena and variegated flax lily (Dianella tasmanica ‘Variegata’) in my garden right now. The tiny purple blooms of ‘Grapes’ look like miniature pom-poms, and it certainly cheers its way through autumn, its spindly stems supported by white-striped flax ...
Come to my free talk at Antique Rose Emporium this Saturday
November 03, 2016Texas gardeners, come on out to The Antique Rose Emporium Fall Festival in Brenham, Texas, this weekend for entertaining and educational garden speakers, beautiful display gardens, and fun! I’ll be speaking this Saturday, November 5th, from 1:30 to 2:30 pm. My talk, with plenty of eye-candy photos, is ...
Visit to Quinta Mazatlan, birding, and Planta Nativa Festival
October 27, 2016 Texas is a big state, and living in the center of it means that whichever direction you travel, it’s a long drive to the state line. Last weekend, that meant a 5-hour drive to the Rio Grande Valley, where Texas shares a border with Mexico. My destination? ...
Urban meadow and security landscaping at Austin forensics center and police station
October 23, 2016 How many police stations have landscaping like this? I spotted this raised meadow while driving through East Austin recently and slammed on the brakes to get a better look. From the street — 812 Springdale Road, in the Govalle neighborhood — you see this along one side ...
RH Austin rooftop garden showcases contemporary outdoor furniture
October 06, 2016 Three weeks after its grand opening, I climbed the glittering, mirrored grand staircase at the 62,000-square-foot mansion known as RH Austin (Restoration Hardware, rebranded), one of the anchor stores in the new Northside section of The Domain shopping center in north Austin. After a cursory inspection of ...
Spider lilies are up
September 19, 2016 So much for calling the end of summer. It’s been as hot as Georgia asphalt for the past week, and I’ve been out in it every day, getting the garden in shape for fall. At least it’s given me a chance to appreciate the spider lilies (Lycoris ...
Out and about in Austin nurseries and parks
September 18, 2016 Lately I’m taking as many garden photos with my phone as with my “real” camera, and these often get posted to my Instagram. But not all of them, and sometimes I like to share them on my blog too. So here’s some cool stuff I spotted last ...
Zinging through the end of summer
September 01, 2016 Although I was gone for half of it, which no doubt helped, August was one of the most pleasant Augusts I’ve experienced since moving to Austin 22 years ago. It just hasn’t been all that hot (in the low to mid-90s F, and even some days in ...
