Visit to Chicago Botanic Garden: English Walled Garden

Visit to Chicago Botanic Garden: English Walled Garden

October 16, 2007 After unseasonable heat for the Chicago Marathon weekend, our last day in Chicago, October 9th, dawned clear and cooler, with highs in the 70s. Ahhh, much better! Taking advantage of the beautiful day, we took a 45-minute train ride north of town to the Chicago Botanic Garden ...
Watersaver Lane at San Antonio Botanical Garden

Watersaver Lane at San Antonio Botanical Garden

September 11, 2007 Conserving water is integral to “green” gardening in central Texas. Although Austin receives an average of 32 inches of rain a year, much of our rainfall is concentrated in spring and fall and in heavy showers that run off quickly rather than soaking into the soil. Yet ...
Visit to San Antonio Botanical Garden

Visit to San Antonio Botanical Garden

September 06, 2007 At summer’s end, Pride of Barbados ( Caesalpinia pulcherrima) steals the show at the entrance to the Botanical Garden, paired with butterfly weed and a tall ornamental grass. On a business trip in San Antonio last week, I lucked into an hour to spare before I needed ...
Winter wonderland at the Wildflower Center

Winter wonderland at the Wildflower Center

December 13, 2006 This is what winter looks like in Austin: autumn leaves persistently hanging on, ornamental grasses bending in a north breeze, evergreen live oaks and cedars (junipers, actually), and bright blue skies. It may not be everyone’s idea of a winter wonderland, but I love it. I visited ...
Old South at Bayou Bend

Old South at Bayou Bend

November 25, 2006 Camellia in bloom at Bayou Bend After not one but two Thanksgiving feasts—Thursday with my husband’s family, Friday with mine—it was time to give thanks for nature’s beauty and feast our eyes instead of our bellies. So before we left Houston today we took a stroll at ...
Goblins in the Garden at the Wildflower Center

Goblins in the Garden at the Wildflower Center

October 30, 2006 Please, sir, may I have some more? On Sunday evening we attended Goblins in the Garden, an annual Halloween event at the Wildflower Center. The city’s little haunters were out in force, and it was fun to see the volunteers running the event dressed in the spirit ...
Craig Nazor on how to save Zilker Gardens

Craig Nazor on how to save Zilker Gardens

June 25, 2006On June 11, I posted here about the gradual decline of Austin’s beautiful Zilker Botanical Gardens and its Hartman Prehistoric Garden . (Please take a look if you didn’t read it already.) Craig Nazor, Zilker Gardens volunteer extraordinare, was quoted in a Statesman article about the problem, and ...