September 02, 2009 Cascading down a steep-sloping front yard, Jeff Pavlat’s 8-year-old terraced xeric garden is a symphony of form, texture, and subtle color echoes. I met Jeff a year ago at an Oracle Gorge Nursery sale and have asked his advice about agaves and aloes from time to time …

September 02, 2009 Cascading down a steep-sloping front yard, Jeff Pavlat’s 8-year-old terraced xeric garden is a symphony of form, texture, and subtle color echoes. I met Jeff a year ago at an Oracle Gorge Nursery sale and have asked his advice about agaves and aloes from time to time …

September 01, 2009 This isn’t traditional fall foliage, but in honor of September’s arrival and our recent hint of coolness in the air, I thought I’d show two foliage plants I’m really enjoying right now. This little silver Mediterranean fan palm (Chamaerops humilis var. argentea) has such pretty leaves, blue …

September 01, 2009 This isn’t traditional fall foliage, but in honor of September’s arrival and our recent hint of coolness in the air, I thought I’d show two foliage plants I’m really enjoying right now. This little silver Mediterranean fan palm (Chamaerops humilis var. argentea) has such pretty leaves, blue …

August 31, 2009 ‘Colorado’ water lily I’m walking on much cooler air this morning! On the way home from dropping my kids off at school, I was driving with the windows down, practically hanging my head out the window like a happy dog. ‘Colorado’ water lily I passed a high …

August 31, 2009 ‘Irish Eyes’ rudbeckia My thanks to all the new gardeners who commented on my review of The Perennial Care Manual, an excellent new book by Nancy Ondra. As you may remember, I am giving away one copy to a local newbie gardener and one to a non-local …

August 30, 2009 My garden was one of the lucky ones late last week to get a little rain. Between Wednesday and Thursday nights I recorded nearly three-quarters of an inch, which was the most rain my garden has seen in quite some time. As that weren’t enough, on Friday …

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 …

August 27, 2009 Softleaf yucca (Y. recurvifolia) I nearly always read the last page of a magazine first. So when my Garden Design (Sept/Oct 2009) arrived today I flipped to the back to read about Arizona landscape architect Christy Ten Eyck. I’ve seen her work featured in magazines, and I …

August 27, 2009 Softleaf yucca (Y. recurvifolia) I nearly always read the last page of a magazine first. So when my Garden Design (Sept/Oct 2009) arrived today I flipped to the back to read about Arizona landscape architect Christy Ten Eyck. I’ve seen her work featured in magazines, and I …

August 26, 2009 Funky if increasingly gentrified South Congress Avenue lured me into the heat one recent afternoon. I only did a bit of window shopping, but that’s half the fun on this must-see Austin street lined with independently owned, only-in-Austin stores. Pictured above, a vision of coolness on a …

August 24, 2009 New gardeners will find The Perennial Care Manual, Nancy Ondra’s latest collaboration with photographer Rob Cardillo, to be an essential reference. Everything you need to know about planning, planting, and caring for a perennial garden is here. In Part 1, titled “Perennial Care Basics,” Ondra explains in …

August 23, 2009 Cousin Itt has a new home. I brought this potted Texas nolina (Nolina texana) from my old garden right before we leased the Unsold House, and it has been sitting on a wheeled cart in the back yard for a couple of weeks as I pondered where …

August 23, 2009 Cousin Itt has a new home. I brought this potted Texas nolina (Nolina texana) from my old garden right before we leased the Unsold House, and it has been sitting on a wheeled cart in the back yard for a couple of weeks as I pondered where …