October 06, 2013 Driving through southwest Austin’s Travis Country neighborhood last week, on a tip from a regular reader (thanks, Charlene!), I spotted this terraced, lawn-gone garden. The front yard slants like a ski slope right down to the front porch, and I imagine the owners struggled with drainage issues …

October 04, 2013 I spotted this cheery welcome in central Austin today: oodles of oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida), a fall-blooming, naturalizing bulb for central Texas, in bloom against a white picket fence. Happy Friday, y’all! All material © 2006-2013 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited …

October 03, 2013 Are you ready to ditch your lawn? I’ll be speaking about taking out the lawn and landscaping/gardening without it on two occasions this fall, and I hope you’ll make time to come see me. Both events are free and open to the public. Saturday, November 2, 1:00-2:00 …

October 01, 2013Support your local nurseries, y’all! October is Support Your Independent Nursery month — or so I’ve declared for the past several years. Every October I write a post or even a series about some of Austin’s locally owned nurseries, and I encourage other bloggers to do the same …

September 30, 2013 Lady Bird Lake is a constant-level lake — kept that way through releases of water upstream — which means that the ongoing, devastating Texas drought has not touched this beautiful body of water that meanders through downtown Austin. While Lake Travis and other Highland Lakes continue to …

September 28, 2013 Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona Today is National Public Lands Day, the “largest, single-day volunteer effort for public lands” in the U.S., which includes free admission to U.S. national parks, monuments, and forests. It’s my goal to see as many national parks as possible — and I …

September 26, 2013 Yesterday morning I saw that the oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida) in the back garden were going to be in full bloom once the sun rose. But I was out all day long with client meetings, after-school driving to a volleyball game, and dinner. Finally at 7:15 pm, …

September 25, 2013 Cruising up Burnet Road last week I spotted a new store, Remixologie, with this intriguing, red-hot planter gracing their entry. Naturally I had to stop for a closer look. It turns out they’re selling these aptly named steel wok planters from 2wards Design Group. The brochure says …

September 24, 2013 October has arrived early in Austin. Since Saturday we’ve all been thrilling to temperatures in the 80s and low 90sF, with a dry, northerly breeze. While those temps may sound summery to some of my readers — those who do not live and garden under the Death …

September 22, 2013 Hey, Austinites, I’ll be speaking at The Garden Club of Austin this Thursday from 7:30 to 8:30 pm about how to design your yard with less or no lawn. The talk is free and open to the public, so come on out and get some ideas for …

September 20, 2013 Do you ever mentally substitute plants that grow well in your region for non-hardy plants you see in a magazine or blog picture from another region? As a gardener in a part of the country not well represented by national gardening magazines, I often find that the …

September 19, 2013 While driving the hilly West Austin neighborhood of Jester this week, I couldn’t help noticing this attractive, lawn-gone garden that relies heavily on evergreens and ornamental grasses with a sprinkling of flowering perennials for color. Limestone boulders and pieced flagstone pathways are a key design element here …

September 18, 2013 The red flags of oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida) bloomed for two or three days in the front garden, but by yesterday they were shriveled in the heat and hanging at half mast. A short but sweet show. I have only a few bulbs in this area, sprinkled …

September 16, 2013 I know I keep coming back to this part of my garden for Foliage Follow-Up, but I just can’t help it. Planted earlier this year, its growth has been explosive, especially of the silvery groundcover pictured here, our native woolly stemodia (Stemodia lanata). Here’s another look. Silver-green …