Garden-tour fluffing and fall Foliage Follow-Up
October 16, 2015 A new yellow Hesperaloe parviflora peeks around a Yucca rostrata in the lower garden. I’ve attended many a garden tour, but I had no idea how much work prepping for one requires. Not because anyone tells you to, but because your own sense of perfectionism kicks in ...
Sedgey evergreen garden of Pat Mozersky for Foliage Follow-Up
September 16, 2015 Austin designer Mark Word (see my profile about him) designed this serene, green San Antonio garden that you can see on the upcoming Watersaver Landscape Tour on October 24. I got a preview last Friday thanks to Shirley of Rock-Oak-Deer. The garden belongs to Pat Mozersky, the ...
Tough August survivors for Foliage Follow-Up
August 16, 2015 Mexican honeysuckle adds leafy lushness in the dappled shade of live oaks and is flowering to boot. Its companions include Mexican weeping bamboo, Agave colorata, foxtail fern, and Pennisetum purpureum ‘Vertigo’. These are “the bitter days in the garden,” according to West Texan Susan Tomlinson, who blogs ...
I heart foliage! July Foliage Follow-Up
July 16, 2015 This month for Foliage Follow-Up I’m wearing my heart on my sleeve — well, on my garden anyway. This is one of my favorite combos in the front garden right now: feathery, chartreuse bamboo muhly grass (Muhlenbergia dumosa); spiky, star-shaped ‘Burgundy Ice’ dyckia; and lace-textured white skullcap ...
Toronto teaser Foliage Follow-Up
June 16, 2015 I returned home from the Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling last Monday, but I haven’t had a moment to post about the gardens yet thanks to a big deadline. I’m still slogging away on that, but for Foliage Follow-Up, which is today, I offer you a teaser of ...
Purple prickly pear for Foliage Follow-Up
May 16, 2015 Purple pot and purple prickly pear — ten years after planting I’m still enjoying the color echo, especially against the gray deck railing. Vivid orange pomegranate blossoms add a fun color contrast in the background. So what leafy love is going on in your May garden? Please ...
Twilight garden for Foliage Follow-Up
April 16, 2015 Last evening the garden was bathed in the soft glow of a spring twilight. After a day of planting, mulching, and general tidying, I was glad for a quiet moment to just stop and enjoy the garden. The new “monolith” wall has made a handy spot to ...
Foliage Follow-Up: Colorful new pots and plants for spring
March 16, 2015 Yesterday was one of those perfect days for working in the garden all day long. And that’s exactly what I did, including potting up this beautiful new purple pot with the twistiest paleleaf yucca (Y. pallida) I’ve ever seen. The leaves look like ribbons curled with scissors, ...
If I’d gnome you were coming: February Foliage Follow-Up
February 16, 2015 Can it already be mid-February and time for Foliage Follow-Up? Here in Austin, winter may yet drop in for a surprise visit, but spring has already stepped inside and hung up her coat and hat. She’ll be putting her feet up on the ottoman soon. I saw ...
New year in green and gold: January Foliage Follow-Up
January 16, 2015 It’s a new year in the garden, and I haven’t really been out in it for a while. An unusually long stretch of cold, gray days had me feeling like I was in Seattle, and let me tell you, it made me feel pretty gray myself. But ...
Spiny fingers for Foliage Follow-Up
December 16, 2014 Amid the crazy busyness of December, I’m opting for a quick and easy subject for my monthly Foliage Follow-Up post: a cute, orange-spined, somewhat profane-looking cactus in a goofy, skeleton-decorated Rick Van Dyke pot. Sometimes you just have to indulge the whimsy. What kind of foliage is ...
Evergreen foundation garden for Foliage Follow-Up
November 16, 2014 What won’t block the windows and grows no taller than 3 feet? What remains evergreen? What can live in shade? What won’t the deer eat? These are the foundation-planting questions that haunt generations of gardeners (or me anyway), especially those in the South, where we expect the ...
Nonirrigated native plant garden of Lee Clippard is a foliage lover’s dream
October 16, 2014 Earlier this month I visited the East Austin garden of Lee Clippard, blogger at The Grackle, and his partner, John. The first fall rains had just arrived, following a relatively mild summer, so their foliage-centric garden of native plants was looking lush and green. I’d never have ...
Bold leaves and light-catching grasses for Foliage Follow-Up
September 16, 2014 I’m giving Moby, my ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (A. ovatifolia), pride of place in today’s Foliage Follow-Up post. At nearly 7 feet across, he’s the star of the back garden in all seasons, but especially in late summer when the fall-blooming perennials haven’t really revved up yet. An ...
Succulent and cactus container garden thrives under Death Star: August Foliage Follow-Up
August 16, 2014 Two months ago I acquired another steel pipe remnant and set it in the gravel garden by the front door. There it sat empty for nearly 8 weeks as I traveled and debated what to plant in it. Finally, taking my own advice not to plant anything ...
Foliage Follow-Up goes undercover in Portland
July 16, 2014 After a week of nonstop sightseeing and garden touring in Portland, Oregon, on the Garden Bloggers Fling and, before that, with my DH, I came home with fun memories, fresh inspiration for my own garden, and 2,471 images in my camera. I have yet to sort through ...
