Garden Designers Roundtable: Gardening with Deer in Central Texas
December 13, 2011 If only all deer were as welcome in our gardens as Santa’s… But they’re not—at least not for most of us who want an attractive, diversely planted landscape around our home. Despite Bambi’s cuteness in the wild, in the garden deer are chomping and antler-rubbing pests that ...
Thankful for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center & native plants
November 26, 2011 Avoiding the Black Friday madness and taking advantage of a beautiful fall day in Austin, my family and I headed to the Wildflower Center for a post-lunch stroll yesterday. Since all the plants at the Wildflower Center are native to Texas, it’s illuminating to see what still ...
Thankful for the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center & native plants
November 26, 2011 Avoiding the Black Friday madness and taking advantage of a beautiful fall day in Austin, my family and I headed to the Wildflower Center for a post-lunch stroll yesterday. Since all the plants at the Wildflower Center are native to Texas, it’s illuminating to see what still ...
The long view: Reflections on Austin’s drought
September 17, 2011 The approach of autumn is a hopeful time for the central Texas gardener. It means we’ve survived another long, hot summer and can enjoy being outdoors again. It means time for the rains to return to revitalize the summer-weary garden, replenish our aquifers and lakes, and offer ...
Visit to Dragonfly Farms Nursery, & goodbye Seattle Fling
August 20, 2011 The final event of last month’s Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling was an afternoon visit to Dragonfly Farms Nursery—“Where Abnormality is the Normality!”—in Kingston, WA, and a fun happy hour on the lawn. Dragonfly Farms offers not only an enticing selection of plants for sale but beautiful and ...
Visit to Plant Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Botanic Garden: Shade & bog gardens
June 22, 2011 Juniper Level Botanic Garden, a 5-acre display garden at Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, N.C., is roughly divided in two parts: the sunny, newer gardens surrounding owner Tony Avent’s house, and the shady, older gardens surrounding the house in which the business is run. In this post ...
Visit to Plant Delights Nursery and Juniper Level Botanic Garden: Hardy tropicals & pond gardens
June 21, 2011 Not everyone loves agaves as much as I do, I realize (shaking my head in astonishment). For you, then, these flowery images from the Juniper Level Botanic Garden at Plant Delights Nursery in Raleigh, N.C., which I visited two weeks ago. Pictured above is an orange dahlia, ...
Inside Austin Gardens Tour 2011: Sue Nazar garden
May 12, 2011 Sue Nazar’s garden, which you can see Saturday on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour, is a lush, expansive oasis tucked in the hills of west Austin. I got a sneak peek on Tuesday, courtesy of the Travis County Master Gardeners, and I’m sharing it with you. Over ...
Feathery cycad fronds for Friday
April 01, 2011 For your fix of green foliage, especially all you cold-climate gardeners, here are a few more images of the cycads at Hartman Prehistoric Garden on Wednesday. Light-catching new leaves Happy Friday! All material © 2006-2011 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited ...
Hartman Prehistoric Garden is cycad-delic
March 31, 2011 One hundred million years ago, Austin looked a lot different. A shallow sea lapped across central Texas, and later, as the sea retreated, cycads, magnolias, ferns, reeds and other ancient plants colonized the humid marshes. A dinosaur like this one walked here, leaving behind footprints that fossilized ...
Still Digging: Celebrating five years of blogging
February 17, 2011 On my 5th blogiversary, I’d just like to say thank you. To you, dear reader. Your interest, your comments, and our shared garden dreams inspire me to keep on Digging. All material © 2006-2011 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited ...
Foliage Follow-Up in the Fatal Flower Garden
January 16, 2011 On this chilly, wet Foliage Follow-Up, let’s revisit the fabulous Tex-Asian garden in east Austin designed and built by Grace Riggan and Joshua Bowles. Its intriguing name? Fatal Flower Garden. Aren’t you just dying to see what’s behind the wall? Me too. Just don’t look for a ...
Artistic Stone Palms garden of Berthold Haas
January 15, 2011 On this rainy, chilly Bloom Day I’m just not going to venture into the garden to poke around for a tiny rosemary bloom or withered Knock Out rose petal. Instead I’m treating you to a reprise of images from the Stone Palms garden, located in the Clarksville ...
The enticement of named gardens
January 14, 2011 Driving through central Austin yesterday, I passed by two named gardens, neither taking itself too seriously, both begging for a slow-down or, in my case, a full stop for a quick photo op. Pictured above is the aptly named Casa de Colores, a paintbox of a house ...
Hits of green (and tan) in the winter garden
December 12, 2010 This post is for Linda and Mark of Each Little World, who are blanketed under their third snowstorm of the week in Madison, Wisconsin, and who asked for “hits of green” from southern bloggers. A twilight stroll reveals soft blue-greens amid the leafy exposed limestone in my ...
Austin Open Days Tour 2010: David-Peese garden
October 22, 2010 Like a contemporary fairy-tale cottage, the home of James David and Gary Peese is glimpsed through the embrace of the surrounding garden: a fascinating, wow-inducing, richly planted—and richly hardscaped—yet intimate and surprisingly unpretentious garden. This was my final stop on last Saturday’s Open Days garden tour. James ...
