Groundcovers

January 06, 2011 Austin has so many mild winter days that it’s really a shame not to be out enjoying your garden at this time of year. But what if your flowery perennial garden dies back in winter and you’re left with brown grass, leaf-strewn beds, and a shade tree ...

December 05, 2010 For those of you in warm climates like Austin, here’s a great little ground cover with everlasting, silvery green leaves and nearly nonstop yellow flowers. Australian native Chrysocephalum apiculatum ‘Flambe Yellow’ was sent to me for trial by Proven Winners in the spring of 2009, and it’s ...

October 16, 2010 I hope you’ll join me today for Foliage Follow-Up, the day after Bloom Day when we celebrate leaves, bark, seedheads, etc.—plant characteristics often overlooked in favor of flowers. Share your favorite foliage for October, and then leave a link here in the comments so we can find ...

August 16, 2010 It’s August. It’s Austin. It’s incredibly hot and humid. Flowers for Bloom Day were pretty scarce, but foliage is, as always, carrying the garden through the toughest months. My faves for Foliage Follow-Up this month are visually cooling, with variegated or glaucous leaves. But really, anything that ...

August 09, 2010 No, not purple-hearted monster. Attack of the purple heart monster, aka Tradescantia pallida. It’s taking over the exposed limestone in the lower garden, and if you were to brave the mosquitoes and walk back there, you’d have to pick your way through patches of purple heart. It ...

January 16, 2010 Join me today for Foliage Follow-Up, giving foliage as well as bark, berries, and other non-flowering features a day of celebration on the day after May Dreams Carol’s popular and beloved Garden Bloggers Bloom Day. Winter in Austin is quite green thanks to an abundance of live ...

September 29, 2009 Over at The Grackle, Lee sees his garden bursting with purples and yellows. I miss my former garden’s fall purples like Mexican bush sage, mistflower, and ‘Indigo Spires’ salvia. But I am enjoying a flush of silver and golden yellow and orange in my new garden right ...

August 28, 2009 They’re a dime-a-dozen in gardens all over Austin. Here are a few plants easy to overlook because of over-familiarity, whose praises I rarely sing, but which keep my garden green even during the hottest and driest summer anyone alive can remember. ‘Katie’ dwarf ruellia (Ruellia brittoniana), also ...

May 11, 2009 A carpet of silver ponyfoot (Dichondra argentea) sparkles like a stream in the Buckeye Trail garden. My pictures from this garden, our third stop on the Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour, don’t do it justice. The Buckeye Trail garden, located in Rollingwood, was my favorite of the ...

May 10, 2009 On Saturday I joined Diana of Sharing Nature’s Garden, Lori of The Gardener of Good and Evil, and a friend of Lori’s from Arizona to visit four private gardens on the Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour, an annual tour of gardens that predominantly feature native Texas plants ...

April 14, 2009 “Get your desert eyes on,” Scott Calhoun urges in his new book The Hot Garden. In other words, see and appreciate the natural beauty of a country that is not lush, leafy, or green and that relies on rock and open space as much as plants for ...

October 08, 2008 With temps in the 50s this morning, milder afternoon heat (80s), and even an inch and a half of rain yesterday, it’s feeling autumnal. I can never resist a hint of fall, so I abandoned my unpacking to take some photos and show you my new garden-to-be ...

May 19, 2008 You’ve seen Tom Spencer’s garden, which I visited on Mother’s Day weekend as part of Gardens on Tour 2008, a self-guided tour of Austin gardens that feature native plants and green-gardening practices. Sponsored by the Wildflower Center, the tour’s focus has varied wildly over the three years ...

October 30, 2007 When a travel opportunity knocks, I’m usually grabbing my suitcase on the way to the door. This year I resolved to mesh my love of travel and of gardens by visiting local gardens on my trips. Since August I’ve explored and blogged about Chicago’s and San Antonio’s ...

October 15, 2007 ‘Little John’ dwarf bottlebrush (Callistemon viminalis ‘Little John’) October Bloom Day in Austin should be quite lovely. But my garden peaked early this year, and I spent yesterday cutting back my salvias and roses to try to stimulate one more good bloom cycle this fall—completely forgetting about ...

October 15, 2007 ‘Little John’ dwarf bottlebrush (Callistemon viminalis ‘Little John’) October Bloom Day in Austin should be quite lovely. But my garden peaked early this year, and I spent yesterday cutting back my salvias and roses to try to stimulate one more good bloom cycle this fall—completely forgetting about ...