Read This: Gardens of the High Line and The High Line, two books about NYC’s most influential public park
January 23, 2018 Exploring the High Line in October 2014 remains a highlight of my garden travels, and I’d love to go see it again. Until then, reading about it keeps the fire burning, gives insight into the origins and design of this unique public garden/nature walk/civic space, and offers ...
Review of The Monarch: Saving Our Most-Loved Butterfly, and how we can help in Texas
October 04, 2017 The first wave of migrating monarch butterflies has reached North Texas and will be fluttering through Austin and other parts of Central Texas by next week. Despite their seeming fragility, these tenacious creatures migrate each fall as far as 2,800 miles from the northern U.S. and southern ...
Two must-read books for succulent lovers: Succulents and Designing with Succulents
September 20, 2017 All you succulent junkies, listen up. If you love succulents or want to learn how to grow them, two newly released books by succulent-gardening trailblazers Debra Lee Baldwin and Robin Stockwell need to be at the top of your must-read list. Let’s start with Designing with Succulents ...
Read This: Potted: Make Your Own Stylish Garden Containers & BOOK GIVEAWAY!
July 10, 2017 I’m crazy for Los Angeles garden shop Potted and its colorful, modern accessories for patio and porch living and gardening. I’ve made two pilgrimages to the store (here and here) when passing through L.A., and I’ve ordered from and received gifts from their online store (yes, you ...
Read This: Gardening with Foliage First
June 16, 2017 Today is Foliage Follow-Up, my monthly meme that encourages us to focus on often-underappreciated foliage plants, rather than spotlight-hogging flowers. That means it’s the perfect day to review a new book by two foliage-loving design experts, Karen Chapman and Christina Salwitz. Gardening with Foliage First: 127 Dazzling ...
Read This: 101 Organic Gardening Hacks, The Spirit of Stone, and The Cocktail Hour Garden
May 15, 2017 A raft of gardening books has piled up on my desk this spring. I’m tempted to lash the whole stack into a raft and paddle to a deserted island, where I’ll have time to read them all (if only that wouldn’t make them soggily unreadable). If you’re ...
Read This: Hummingbird Plants of the Southwest
February 13, 2017 After screech owls, hummingbirds are my favorite garden visitors. Zipping around in jewel-toned splendor, these tiny birds with pugnacious personalities are a joy to watch. One of my favorite gardening moments occurred when I was watering some new salvias I’d planted, and suddenly heard a deep thrumming ...
Read This: Gardenista
January 30, 2017 I got behind with my self-declared Book Review Week last week, but I’m back on track today with my review of Gardenista: The Definitive Guide to Stylish Outdoor Spaces (2016, Artisan) by Michelle Slatalla. Since it was a fall release, I’d hoped I might find it under ...
Book Review Week: Texas gardening and Hill Country photography books
January 24, 2017 Texas gardeners and shutterbugs who enjoy photographing the beautiful Texas Hill Country will appreciate today’s book picks: Texas Month-by-Month Gardening by Robert “Skip” Richter and Photographing Austin, San Antonio & the Texas Hill Country by Laurence Parent. Let’s start with Texas gardening. Author Skip Richter is a ...
Book Review Week: The Garden Bible
January 23, 2017 I’m kicking off Book Review Week here at Digging (yes, I had time to read a few gardening books over the holidays and want to share my faves) with The Garden Bible: Designing Your Perfect Outdoor Space (2016, Images Publishing) by Barbara Ballinger and Michael Glassman. While ...
Read This: The Bold Dry Garden
October 10, 2016 Our gardens tell our stories. The plants we choose, the features we create, the very layout is an autobiography of our passions, fancies, and personality. That’s why the most inspiring gardens spring from impassioned and artistic minds. The Ruth Bancroft Garden near San Francisco is a perfect ...
Read This: Hand-Built Outdoor Furniture
June 29, 2016 When the Death Star really starts blazing during the summer, we gardeners in the South and Southwest put down our shovels and trowels, do a little weeding or watering in the early morning hours, and mainly try to stay in the shade or a swimming hole until ...
Read This: Gardens of Awe and Folly
May 12, 2016 Have you ever dawdled over the pages of a book because you didn’t want it to end? Vivian Swift’s Gardens of Awe and Folly: A Traveler’s Journal on the Meaning of Life and Gardening (Bloomsbury, 2016) is one of those books. I find that I’m poring over ...
Read This: The Cancer Survivor’s Garden Companion
February 17, 2016 I am not a cancer survivor, nor do I (as far as I know, and with a superstitious knock on wood) have cancer. Therefore, I’m not the target audience for my friend and fellow Austinite Jenny Peterson’s latest book, The Cancer Survivor’s Garden Companion: Cultivating Hope, Healing ...
Read This: Outstanding American Gardens
February 01, 2016Nothing teaches you more about good garden design than visiting as many gardens as you can. The Garden Conservancy helps by coordinating public tours, called Open Days, of hundreds of private gardens across the U.S. each year. If you’re lucky enough to live in a region with a ...
Read This: The Cultivated Wild: Gardens and Landscapes by Raymond Jungles
January 03, 2016 Were a name and profession ever more perfectly matched than those of Raymond Jungles? Like San Francisco nursery owner Flora Grubb and — I kid you not — Austin urologist and vasectomy practitioner Dr. Richard (Dick) Chopp, Miami-based landscape architect Jungles was surely destined to do what ...
