1st garden–2007

February 21, 2007 I was photographing the Carolina jessamine this evening, which is in full bloom on my southern fence, when I noticed a swallowtail fluttering about, dipping from one flower to the next. Early spring visitor. As I drank in the jessamine’s fragrance, the butterfly drank its nectar. Something ...

February 19, 2007 The Christmas amaryllis is gracing the table with another cluster of flowers. I’m enjoying the orangey red, trumpet-shaped blossoms, which brighten up the dining table. But looking past the amaryllis, through the window overlooking the rear garden, all I’m seeing right now is the kids’ trampoline, its ...

February 16, 2007 My grandmother and I in her garden, circa 1969 A couple of months ago, Carol at May Dreams posed the questions, “What makes a gardener? Do you consider yourself a gardener? How did you decide you were a gardener? When is the first time you referred to ...

February 15, 2007 ‘Valentine’ is dependably in bloom one day after Valentine’s Day In the spirit of sharing, Carol at May Dreams has designated the 15th of each month as Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. Today, on her inaugural post, she bravely shared a photo of her snowy Indiana garden, not ...

February 15, 2007 ‘Valentine’ is dependably in bloom one day after Valentine’s Day In the spirit of sharing, Carol at May Dreams has designated the 15th of each month as Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day. Today, on her inaugural post, she bravely shared a photo of her snowy Indiana garden, not ...

February 15, 2007 I was planning to do a plug next Monday for fellow garden blogger Amy Stewart, who is coming to Austin next Friday, February 23rd, for a book reading. But when I opened the Statesman this morning, I saw they’d beat me to the punch by running an ...

February 15, 2007 I was planning to do a plug next Monday for fellow garden blogger Amy Stewart, who is coming to Austin next Friday, February 23rd, for a book reading. But when I opened the Statesman this morning, I saw they’d beat me to the punch by running an ...

February 14, 2007 This Valentine’s Day, I’m giving my husband something different. It’s a sweet botanical arrangement from Big Red Sun. Isn’t it beautiful? In January I posted a photo tour of this hip nursery and mentioned, but did not photograph, their to-die-for arrangements of succulents. A few days ago, ...

February 10, 2007Bad news for garden-tour enthusiasts in Austin this year. The Garden Conservancy’s Open Days schedule for 2007 shows no Austin date. In years past, Open Days Austin has been held in October, and in 2006 I photographed all six gardens on the tour and gave a blog tour ...

February 09, 2007 This is how the foundation bed looked last fall. Lantana, Mexican bush sage, Lindheimer muhly grass, and skeletonleaf goldeneye combined for a great show—but only in one season. Last Sunday I tore much of it out. Sooner than expected, I found a ‘Wonderful’ pomegranate, the sought-after focal ...

February 07, 2007 “Pomegranate House” For the west-facing bed by my front door, which I tore up last weekend in my craving for something less ordinary, I’ve decided on a pomegranate. Punica granatum ‘Wonderful’, to be exact. ‘Wonderful’ sounds, well, wonderful. A small tree that can be kept at 8 ...

February 05, 2007 Looking west from my front porch two nights ago, I noticed a beautiful sunset behind a filigree of bare trees. Yesterday I enjoyed perfect gardening weather—about 65 degrees, sunny, no wind. I dug in the front garden all day, tearing out a perfectly good sapling redbud and ...

February 03, 2007 My thanks to Apartment Therapy, an urban-living design blog in New York City, for their nice words about my ice-storm photos. When editor Matthew Noiseux contacted me to ask permission to repost one of them, and I visited his site to see what it was about, I ...

February 01, 2007 Emerging heartleaf skullcap foliage It’s February, and I haven’t cut back last summer’s foliage yet. I’m feeling antsy about it. Like many gardeners who want something to look at in the winter (and provide shelter and food for birds), I leave frost-bitten foliage alone for several months ...

January 24, 2007 The garden blogger Down Under, Stuart at Gardening Tips ‘n’ Ideas, has piloted a world-map garden-blog directory that I think is fantastic. Designed to help people find garden bloggers in their “neighborhood,” the map allows you to click on a country to see where bloggers are located ...

January 23, 2007 Over at Garden Rant, a fierce defense of painted garden furniture (indeed, garden furniture in general) has sprung up after Elizabeth ranted about magazine advice like painting a bench to match your hydrangeas. As it turned out, quite a few readers love slapping paint on furniture to ...