August garden planning & fall anticipation
August 19, 2012 August is a waiting game for central Texas gardeners—waiting for fall rains to arrive, waiting for the muggy blanket of heat to lift and a cool breeze to blow in from the north, waiting for nurseries to fill up with their fall shipments of new plants, waiting ...
Southwestern plants, French style & tropical verve in the garden of Curt Arnette
June 12, 2012 Landscape architect Curt Arnette, of Sitio Design, is one of the best and yet most modest garden makers you’ll meet in Austin. Back when I was a newbie gardener, breaking ground at our first house in Austin, he and his wife Melisa were our across-the-street neighbors. What ...
Grasses liven the winter garden, so back away from the pruners
January 05, 2012 Ornamental grasses are touted for their fall beauty, but they add a lot of interest in winter too. The leaves of this variegated miscanthus may be yellowed and raspy, but they still support fluffy clouds of seeds on long stems, which I admire daily. They remind me ...
Dad’s deer-proof, lawnless courtyard garden
June 18, 2011 I just returned from a vacation in North Carolina with my kids. We drove out to visit my dad and stepmother at their Pittsboro home, near Chapel Hill, which has a lovely courtyard garden out front in place of a big lawn. The wonderful thing about enclosing ...
Prune cast-iron plant to bring back evergreen beauty
February 15, 2011 Does your cast-iron plant look ratty? I have several large clumps of Aspidistra elatior in my shady garden, and their frayed and browned leaf tips were really bugging me. So yesterday I pulled on my gloves, got out my hand pruners, and went to work on them ...
What to do about frozen agaves & other plants
January 12, 2010 The deep freeze of the South has retreated, and now it’s time to assess the damage done to our plants. Native and well-adapted perennials and shrubs should be just fine, even if they look toasted. The best bet is to leave them alone for now, brown stalks ...
Salvia celebration
August 30, 2008 We picked a good time to sell our garden—er, home. Thanks to the recent rain and slightly cooler temperatures (though it’s still in the upper 90s today), the garden has responded with a flush of new flowers. Best of all, the Autumn sage (Salvia greggii ) that ...
Plant This: Mexican oregano spices up the garden
June 25, 2008 Mexican oregano (Poliomintha longiflora ) is one of my favorite summer-blooming perennials. It loves sunny days and hot weather, and it laughs in the face of drought, although, like most xeric plants, it appreciates a good drink every 10 to 14 days when it’s dry. Its tubular ...
Crape myrtles in winter: Sculptural drama
February 15, 2008 A glorious allee of crape myrtles leads to a whimsical toad fountain at the Dallas Arboretum, which I visited on Wednesday. Another view. I’d never seen a crape myrtle allee before, and their smooth trunks and twisting branches are well suited to this kind of display. I’m ...
Plant This: Autumn sage is not just for autumn
November 07, 2007 In the past month, three different visitors to my garden have commented on its fragrance as they walk through the front gate. “It’s just the Salvia greggii ,” I say, taking for granted the clean, minty scent of this shrubby native that I’ve planted on either side ...
Tour of Penelope Hobhouse-designed garden on Harris Boulevard
October 25, 2006 A belvedere “modeled after the music pavilion at Versailles,” according to the Open Days Directory. We garden tourists knew this would be the most opulent garden on the Open Days Austin tour. A feature in the newspaper that tantalized with lavish photos, and mentioned that the garden ...
