Exploring Chanticleer’s Elevated Walkway, Serpentine, and Bulb Meadow
January 03, 2024 Chanticleer Garden’s rooster theme continues with Marcia Donahue‘s cockscomb-bamboo sculptures, which mark the entrance to the Elevated Walkway garden. This is Part 4 of my visit to Chanticleer during the Philadelphia Area Fling last September. The winding pathway spirals around a big Japanese maple, which was blushing ...
Serving up Chanticleer’s Tennis Court Garden
December 30, 2023 Continuing my coverage of Chanticleer Garden, one of the stops on the Philadelphia Area Fling tour in September, I’m taking us today to the Tennis Court Garden. To enter, you descend a formal stone stair with planted-up handrails. I loved a previous iteration planted with fleshy mangaves ...
Chanticleer Garden is my cup o’ tea
December 29, 2023 The enchanting Chanticleer was worth two visits during September’s Philadelphia Area Fling tour. I flew in early from Texas in order to spend an entire day exploring Chanticleer, knowing I’d see it again for a few hours on Day 2 of the tour. More is more! This ...
Twinkly trees aglow in Johnson City
December 25, 2023 Merry Christmas! May your holiday and/or celebration of year’s end be happy and bright! To provide a little extra brightness, I’m sharing pics from the Lights Spectacular display in Johnson City, Texas, which I visited on Friday evening. The live oaks will be lit each night through ...
Birds and native thorn forest at Quinta Mazatlan
December 19, 2023 In early November, I drove 5 hours south to the Rio Grande Valley, land of citrus orchards and skinny-trunked palm trees. I was there for the final photo shoot for my upcoming book on Texas gardens (due out in 2025 with Timber Press). But I couldn’t leave ...
Golden hour at Lady Bird Lake and downtown Austin
December 10, 2023 On these beautiful December days in the ATX, whenever I can, I get myself out of the house, make my way through holiday traffic, and set out on the Hike and Bike Trail’s 3-mile loop. If my timing is good, there’s nothing better than seeing the buildings ...
Another fall walk and deer destruction at home
November 29, 2023 Beautiful fall weather enticed me and DH out for another walk around Lady Bird Lake last weekend, but first we stopped at Red Bud Isle to check out the bald cypresses going rusty orange. It’s a good show for Austin! Kayakers and canoeists were enjoying it too ...
Thankful for today
November 23, 2023 Happy Thanksgiving, my fellow Americans! I’m finding much to be thankful for today and hope you are too. I’m grateful for cooler weather, walks around Lady Bird Lake, and a vibrant hometown to enjoy. Beauty all around me Peaceful moments in nature And of course family and ...
Gardens for adventure, art, and games at Paxson Hill Farm
November 22, 2023 Picking up my tour of Paxson Hill Farm — from the Philadelphia Area Fling in September — where I left off yesterday, let’s keep exploring! After emerging from the hobbit house hideaway, I followed the path uphill through another weeping-tree arch. The romance! Am I right? The ...
Paxson Hill garden still gorgeous in the rain
November 21, 2023 On the final day of the Philadelphia Area Fling in late September, we stopped at Paxson Hill Farm in New Hope, Pennsylvania, to tour its marvelous garden behind the nursery. Even though Tropical Storm Ophelia had made garden-touring rather sodden (but still plenty fun!), I knew Paxson ...
Children’s Adventure Garden at Dallas Arboretum
November 20, 2023 The Rory Meyers Children’s Adventure Garden at Dallas Arboretum opened 10 years ago, but somehow I’d never visited until last month. Why? I guess because my kids had outgrown children’s gardens by the time it opened, and so it wasn’t on my radar despite many visits over ...
Colleen Belk’s Old Austin garden
November 15, 2023 An Old Austin-style garden was featured on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days tour two weekends ago: Colleen Belk’s 43-year-old garden. Yes, 43 years! What is Old Austin style, you may ask? I think of it as a lushly planted Austin garden with Deep South-meets-Southwest plant choices, sort ...
From mill to Mill Fleurs, a garden of rare plants
November 09, 2023 I love a good play on words, and the garden of Barbara and Robert Tiffany employs two in its name. Mill Fleurs occupies the site where two old mills — from the 1700s! — perch along Tohickon Creek. Thirty years ago, the couple purchased the derelict structures, ...
Jenny Rose Carey’s playful garden rooms at Northview, part 2
November 06, 2023 In my last post I showed you half of Jenny Rose Carey’s garden, Northview, which I toured during the Philadelphia Area Fling in September. Today I’ll show you the rest. Let’s start with her Fruits and Flowers Garden, where this Tin Man sculpture greeted me with open ...
Jenny Rose Carey’s charming Northview Garden, part 1
November 05, 2023 It was a soggy late-September midday at the Philadelphia Area Fling when we visited author and horticulturist Jenny Rose Carey‘s garden, Northview Garden, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. My bus of 50 (garden bloggers, Instagrammers, and YouTubers) was invited first to have a sit-down lunch in the carriage ...
Stoneleigh native-plant estate garden and Flingers
November 02, 2023 Our banquet dinner at the Philadelphia Area Fling was held in the grand old Tudor Revival mansion at Stoneleigh: A Natural Garden, located in Villanova, Pennsylvania. Before dinner, we were set loose in the garden to explore for an hour. Let’s start with the house garden, where ...
