"Giant" country in Big Bend National Park
December 31, 2006 Ridge view at Big Bend. Photo by Dave and Shelley. Over Christmas, my friends Shelley and Dave and their daughter drove 10 hours to Big Bend National Park, located in remote southwest Texas and tucked into a wide curve of the Rio Grande. Four hundred and seventy-four ...
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 ...
Where did fall go?
November 09, 2006 A queen butterfly on blue mistflower Here in Austin you take fall color wherever you can find it. It’s slim pickings for leaf-peepers, but at ground level things are happening. Perennials rebloom after biding their time through the summer. Migrating orange monarchs and other butterflies arrive. Pecans ...
Nursery tour: Natural Gardener
November 05, 2006 In the spirit of my recent Open Days tour, I took my camera along during an afternoon trip to Natural Gardener nursery for a pot of oxalis. It was a simple enough errand, and the cool, gray skies made a tour of the nursery’s gardens very appealing ...
Tour of Stone House Vineyard
October 28, 2006 Colorful, xeric perennials contrasted beautifully with an Italian cypress allee. My last garden of the day, Stone House Vineyard required the biggest time commitment. At about 2 pm I took the 40-minute drive out to Spicewood, on Lake Travis. Compared to the crowded, in-town gardens, only a ...
So long, August
September 01, 2006 Purple prickly pear (Opuntia macrocentra) Here’s one plant well suited to this summer’s extreme weather. You won’t see a prickly pear give up the ghost easily, even one in a container that got watered maybe three times all summer. One of the Austin American-Statesman‘s front-page stories today ...
Everything’s coming up roses
March 06, 2006 The red bed: ‘Valentine’ rose bush and purple prickly pear. I like grouping tough antique roses with cacti. It’s something about the softness and lushness of the rose petals contrasting with the spiny “modern” shape of cacti. These two show off their beautiful reds. The ‘Blue Elf’ ...
Everything's coming up roses
March 06, 2006 The red bed: ‘Valentine’ rose bush and purple prickly pear. I like grouping tough antique roses with cacti. It’s something about the softness and lushness of the rose petals contrasting with the spiny “modern” shape of cacti. These two show off their beautiful reds. The ‘Blue Elf’ ...
Rainy morning
February 21, 2006Another cool, wet morning. It’s been misting for hours, which made for interesting close-ups of some of my plants. I’d like to see a deep, soaking rain, but for now droplets of rain will have to do. The fuchsia berries of coralberry In a previous garden I paired ...
