Garden Designers Roundtable: Gardening with Nature, Gardening for Wildlife
August 24, 2010 Just in from a morning stroll through my garden, and what delights I witnessed. A tiny, blurry-winged hummingbird making the rounds from Mexican oregano to flame-leaf acanthus to Turk’s cap to Agastache. Honeybees spelunking for pollen. A leggy, spotted fawn tucked into a stand of bamboo muhly ...
We have owlets!
June 02, 2010 Last weekend we finally spotted what we’d been hoping to see: owl chicks in the owl box. There are two, and while downier and smaller than their parents, they are close to fledging, I think. They keep their parents busy. In the afternoons they hang their heads ...
Coneflowers and critters
June 01, 2010 Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) must always have a place in my garden. It’s one of the happiest summer flowers, with cottage charm and prairie toughness. Plus, those spiky orange coneheads are mesmerizing in close-up and offer vibrant contrast to hot-pink petals. Butterflies adore it, and small spiders ...
Any night owls reading blogs?
May 19, 2010 I bet there are a few of you reading right now, so I thought I’d post a couple of gratuitous screech owl photos from our owl box this evening. He’s such a cutie! All material © 2006-2010 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited ...
Fascinating faces at the Wildflower Center
May 06, 2010 Faces of stone, metal, and bronze greeted me at the Wildflower Center on Monday—part of a sculpture show on display throughout the gardens. I’ve photographed her before. I think she’s part of the garden’s permanent collection. A pensive face for a green glade near the stream. Jumping ...
Sneak preview of Gardens on Tour 2010: Reynosa Drive garden
May 04, 2010 One of my favorite Austin garden tours occurs this Saturday, May 8: Gardens on Tour, produced by the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I’m pleased to offer you a sneak preview of one of the gardens on the tour, the Reynosa Drive garden, which I’m particularly fond ...
Deer-resistant Foliage Follow-Up
April 16, 2010 For April’s Foliage Follow-Up (a celebration of foliage on the day after Bloom Day), let’s see how the one-month-old garden in the deer-infested front yard is holding up. It’s mostly a foliage garden, after all. In case you’re wondering, by “deer-infested” I mean that a half-dozen to ...
Everglades National Park: A beautiful, mysterious waterworld
March 23, 2010 Anhingas and flowering bromeliads in the Everglades, Florida On telling friends that we were planning to visit Everglades National Park, my husband and I found that raised eyebrows and wrinkled noses were the most common responses. Why visit a bug-infested swamp, they asked. We have a thing ...
Naples Botanical Garden: Gardens with Latitude
March 22, 2010 Over spring break we drove 3,200 miles (5,149 km) round-trip to Florida, with stops in Orlando, Miami, Everglades National Park, the Keys (all the way to Key West), and finally Naples to see the brand-new botanical garden there. Planted last August and opened to the public in ...
Screech owl tenant
February 24, 2010 Night owl news! The squatter squirrel has departed or been evicted by the new tenant. At last, after a year-long wait, we have a screech owl in our owl box. I noticed her (or him) on Tuesday, as I was out covering tender plants before a predicted ...
Beware, coyotes
February 18, 2010You may not want to let young children see the picture below. After leaving a client’s house this morning, I took the long way home along Old Spicewood Springs Drive in NW Austin, a scenic, 2-lane road with several low-water crossings with waterfalls, horse paddocks, and limestone cliffs ...
Visit to Fort Worth Zoo
December 28, 2009 Bundled up in coats, scarves, and seldom-worn gloves, we spent several enjoyable hours at the acclaimed Fort Worth Zoo yesterday before driving home to Austin, following a post-Christmas trip to Dallas to visit my DH’s extended family. Among the many birds we saw at the zoo, these ...
Bloggers' Celebration of Our National Parks: A wrap-up
October 18, 2009 Aspens, Rocky Mountain National Park, September 2006 Garden bloggers love the great outdoors and are an adventurous bunch. That’s what I learned this week while reading about visits we’ve made to national parks, national monuments, and other special places that have been set aside for the enjoyment ...
Bloggers’ Celebration of Our National Parks: A wrap-up
October 18, 2009 Aspens, Rocky Mountain National Park, September 2006 Garden bloggers love the great outdoors and are an adventurous bunch. That’s what I learned this week while reading about visits we’ve made to national parks, national monuments, and other special places that have been set aside for the enjoyment ...
Yellowstone National Park, an American safari
October 16, 2009 Before I ever went on safari in Tanzania’s national parks, I traveled with my family to Yellowstone in mid-May of 2000 and saw so many large mammals that I felt as if I were on safari in the American West. Winter had only just released its grip ...
High in Rocky Mountain National Park
October 13, 2009 Bierstadt Lake, Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado After Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which figured prominently in my childhood travels, Rocky Mountain National Park is the one I’ve visited most often. New Yorkers head for Florida in the summer, right? Well, Texans head for Colorado. If you ...
