Meadow views and fantasy treehouses at Longwood Gardens
June 27, 2016 Contrasting with the many formal and traditional gardens at Longwood Gardens (a Philadelphia-area estate garden I visited earlier this month), the 2-year-old Meadow Garden presents an appearance of wild nature. The meadow’s 86 rolling acres of native grasses, perennials, and wildflowers come into view from a shady ...
Those who play in glass houses: Conservatory and Indoor Children's Garden at Longwood Gardens
June 26, 2016 Maybe Southerners don’t need conservatories because our winters are pretty green. Growing up in the South, I don’t recall ever visiting a conservatory until I started garden traveling to northern states. (We don’t have a culture of spring garden shows either, perhaps for the same reason.) Call ...
The late spring show
May 19, 2016 On this rainy, thunder-rolling day, I’m staying inside. But I have a few photos from earlier this week to share. While today all these plants are droopy with rain, they’ll soon perk back up again. This is one of my spring favorites, ‘Peter’s Purple’ bee balm (Monarda ...
Drive-By Gardens: Xeriscapes taking off at Mueller neighborhood
January 08, 2016 On New Year’s Day, we took a stroll through Mueller neighborhood, a New Urban community in east-central Austin. Built on the site of the old airport, where acres of runways and parking lots once sprawled, attractive homes and row houses in a mix of different styles (no ...
Friday fun, a garden gift, and a birth announcement
December 04, 2015 Here’s the fun! This giant steel spider sculpture — it’s friendly, I think; notice the leg wave — can be found at Mueller neighborhood’s Southwest Greenway, my in-laws’ new neighborhood (which means I’ll be doing garden drive-bys in Mueller a lot more often). With a bellyful of ...
The garden knows summer is slipping away
August 20, 2015 As yet another long, hot Austin summer drags on, with no real relief expected until early October, I start combing the garden for signs of a change in season. Late yesterday afternoon I found quite a few — hallelujah! The dangling seedheads of inland sea oats (Chasmanthium ...
New blue tuteur doubles as bee B&B
August 02, 2015 The sea of green that is my deer-resistant sedge lawn and grassy borders now has a welcome shot of color. When I heard that TerraTrellis, a woman-owned, original-garden-art studio in Los Angeles, was running an online sale, I splurged on their Akoris Jr. tuteur with a bee ...
Tarantula!
April 25, 2015 I’m all for bugs in the garden, even spiders, though I have an unreasonable fear of them. But in my coat and shoe closet? Early in the morning as I’m poking my bare foot in there to slip on shoes before driving my kid to school? Uh-uh! ...
The great unfurling
March 24, 2015 Petals unfurl seemingly overnight, new blossoms appearing each morning. Every garden stroll is a small voyage of discovery right now. This week I’m seeing masses of dainty, lilac spiderwort (Tradescantia occidentalis). A single summer snowflake (Leucojum aestivum) with flowers like dancing ladies in white ballgowns trimmed with ...
Oxblood lily ribbon of red and ruellia reticence
September 24, 2014 The oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida) atop the retaining wall in the back garden are in full, crimson bloom, and that red ribbon makes me so happy when I step out to view it in the warm afternoon light. This cluster is growing amid the spiny arms of ...
Dark-fantasy woodland, Asian teahouse and more at Bedrock Gardens, part 2
September 22, 2014 In my last post I introduced you to Bedrock Gardens, created by Jill Nooney and Bob Munger in Lee, New Hampshire, on a former dairy farm. It’s a place of thoughtful design, beautiful views, eye-catching plant combinations, and fanciful found-object sculpture created by Jill. Continuing our tour, ...
Bee-autiful activity in the curbside garden
September 07, 2014 Garlic chives (Allium tuberosum) in full bloom are like a flashing neon sign saying EATS to the local honeybees. Man, do they love it. So do I. They brighten up the summer-tired border with their frothy white blooms. Here’s a wider view of the curbside bed. The ...
I spy a garden spider, and she’s not alone
August 26, 2014 Everyone’s been talking this month about the common but uncommonly large garden spider, also known as black-and-yellow argiope. As it happens, my garden is home to at least one of these colorful, creepy, yet beneficial predators. She’s a big ‘un! She builds her web in the curbside ...
Garden magic and whimsy at Floramagoria: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling
August 13, 2014 As we entered the intriguingly named Floramagoria garden on the recent Portland Garden Bloggers Fling, thunder rumbled and raindrops pelted our group of 40 or so bloggers. The reasonable — and hungry — among us ran for the two covered pavilions with box lunches in hand. The ...
Checking out Chickadee Gardens: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling
August 03, 2014 The Garden Bloggers Fling takes you to so many wonderful gardens that it would be understandable if you simply overloaded by the end of the day, unable to appreciate one more. Thankfully I find new gardens energizing, and when our bus pulled up at Portland blogger Tamara’s ...
Vicki Blachman likes playin’ outside in her rosy, leafy garden
May 05, 2014 I met Vicki Blachman, who blogs at Playin’ Outside, at the first Garden Bloggers Fling here in Austin in 2008. She’s been a warm, light-hearted, steady presence at the Fling and other local blogger events ever since, and I’m glad to know her — not least because ...
