Screech owl visitor
February 16, 2022 A few days ago I looked up and noticed a screech owl hanging out in the door of our owl box. First sighting of the season! At this time of year, males are scouting for nesting sites, and perhaps that’s what this little guy was doing, when ...
Fantasy gardens at Paxson Hill Farm, part 2
February 11, 2022 The gardens of Paxson HIll Farm, which I explored during the Pennsylvania portion of my road trip last October, started out good and got even better. In my last post I shared the farm’s nursery, Shade Garden, Katsura Garden, and Temple Garden. Let’s move on to a ...
James Golden’s Federal Twist garden is like Fight Club, except we do talk about it
January 22, 2022 At the garden gate, towering grasses make you feel about 3 feet tall Plants duke it out for space and sunlight in every garden. But at Federal Twist, a wet-meadow garden in a clearing in the woods near Stockton, New Jersey, you witness the brawling fistfight from ...
LongHouse Reserve ramble, Part 3: Pond, zodiac amphitheater, and grass garden
January 09, 2022 You wouldn’t believe how long I studied these stone-like spheres at LongHouse Reserve when I visited the East Hampton, New York, garden back in October. The openness of the gravel under a grove of trees, with lush greenery all around, and those great, lumpy, gray and brown ...
Looking inward at Innisfree Garden, part 2
December 10, 2021 Today I’m continuing with part 2 of my tour of Innisfree, a public garden in New York’s Hudson Valley. Inspired by Chinese strolling gardens, the naturalistic garden rambles around a glacial lake, with small “cup gardens” to discover along the way. Click here to read part 1 ...
Trolls, grasses, and a storybook children’s garden at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
November 03, 2021 We traveled north in early October to enjoy fall foliage in New Hampshire, stopping first in Maine for a couple of days. A garden on my must-see list: Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens, a 300-acre public garden in Boothbay. Here’s part 2 of my visit; click here for ...
Rainbow of dahlias and mangaves wow at Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens
November 02, 2021 My Northeast road trip in early October wasn’t only about seeing fall foliage. Naturally it included lots of garden visits too, starting with Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay. Only 17 days remained until the garden closed for the season (what a strange concept for this Southerner), ...
Yuccas big and small give a garden the blues
September 30, 2021 I’m getting Blue Garden Lotusland vibes from this part of the garden. A loose grid of paleleaf yucca (Yucca pallida) glows blue-green amid foamy, silver woolly stemodia (Stemodia lanata) groundcover. The anchor plant, by the trio of blue ceramic balls, used to be a gigantic ‘Green Goblet’ ...
Going batty at Bracken Cave, where 20 million bats take flight
September 14, 2021 Austin is justifiably proud of the 1.5-million-strong bat colony that roosts under downtown’s Congress Avenue Bridge. I’ve watched the nightly emergence from the bridge as the bats take flight many times over the years. But when I heard that nearby Bracken Cave contains 15 to 20 million ...
Migrating kites roosting in the garden on their way to South America
August 31, 2021 Austin’s Kite Festival, held annually in March, should perhaps be moved to August. Why? Right now massive flocks of Mississippi kites are passing through Austin on the way to their wintering grounds in South America. In all seriousness, though, the sight of 50 to 75 kites swirling ...
Palo Duro Canyon: We’re Number 2!
August 19, 2021 While nothing compares to the awe-inspiring views at Grand Canyon, Palo Duro Canyon — the 2nd-largest canyon in the U.S. — is also grand (with a little “g”). Striated bands of red and white rock color the canyon walls, which are stubbled with green trees. During the ...
Wild bighorn sheep and wildflowers in the Rocky Mountains
August 06, 2021 Bighorn sheep ewe and lamb Driving to Colorado from Austin entails two days of sitting in the car and letting the wide-open, arid landscape of West Texas and northern New Mexico fly by. Some people find it boring, but I don’t. I enjoy the vast landscape while ...
Wild things living in my garden
July 14, 2021 A month ago I spotted twin newborn fawns in my front garden. They’re still out there most days, only they’re much bigger now and will take flight rather than crouch and hide. The bold one watches warily if we come outside while it’s enjoying an evening lie-down ...
Twin fawns hiding in the garden
June 16, 2021 Opening the front door, I spotted four oversized ears and two white-spotted bodies — twin fawns hidden by their mother in the raised bed by the driveway. Framed against shiny, blue ceramic balls, they made an irresistible photo op. I quietly staked out a spot on the ...
Signs of life
March 24, 2021 I planted 5 small bluebonnets before the Big Freeze. The deer took two as tribute, leaving me with three, and they came through the deep freeze just fine. Now they’re blooming, a hopeful sign of spring! Keeping it real, though, this is how the past couple of ...
Early spring blooms and Athena the owl at Wildflower Center
March 20, 2021 When they’re offered, I take advantage of late-admission hours to gardens. The light is better for photography in the early evening, and you have a better chance of seeing wildlife. On Thursday our local native-plant botanical garden, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, stayed open late, and ...
