Low-water natives in front, party in the back
May 21, 2022 The southwest Austin home my friend Laura Wills and her husband, Eric, share isn’t in the country, but it feels semi-rural thanks to a 2-acre yard and out-of-sight neighbors. The front yard alone is enormous, and most people would sod it with turf grass and spend hours ...
Gathering spaces in Ruthie Burrus Garden, part 2
May 02, 2022 In my last post I hope I wowed you — as I was wowed — by the colorful wildflower meadow and textural spiky-soft shade garden of Ruthie Burrus. If you missed it, check out Part 1 of my visit to Ruthie’s West Austin garden. Today we’ll explore ...
Spring glow-up in my Texas garden
April 20, 2022 Ah, April. It’s a beautiful month for Austin gardens — if you can ignore the live oak pollen catkins hanging off every surface and piling up underfoot. Which I can (just barely). Let’s take a spin through the garden to see what’s blooming this month. These photos ...
Houston Botanic Garden edibles, water wall, and end-of-winter gardens
April 04, 2022 In early March, on a quick trip to Houston, I returned to Houston Botanic Garden for an end-of-winter visit. HBG is still a new garden — it opened in September 2020; click for my visit — and the culinary garden with its massive, aqua-tiled water wall is ...
Comings and goings in the spring garden
March 30, 2022 She ran late by a week or two, but Spring finally made up her mind and sprung. Last week ornamental trees like Mexican plum (Prunus mexicana) flushed into flower as live oaks overhead began their annual mass shedding of “evergreen” leaves. It’s autumn and spring all at ...
Wild ponies and birds on Chincoteague and Assateague Island
March 22, 2022 My big road trip last fall kicked off on September 30th in Portland, Maine. Eighteen days and 2,200 miles later, I cruised along Virginia’s Eastern Shore and across Chincoteague Bay to Chincoteague Island. Yes, the island made famous by the beloved 1947 children’s book Misty of Chincoteague ...
Piet Oudolf meadow in fall bloom at Delaware Botanic Gardens
March 15, 2022 The last public garden I visited on my road trip down the East Coast last October was newly opened Delaware Botanic Gardens in Dagsboro, Delaware. The big draw? A 2-acre meadow designed by revered Dutch plantsman Piet Oudolf, who also designed the plantings of the High Line ...
I painted my brick house white for a fresh look
March 12, 2022 Let me join the throngs of bloggers writing about painting dated brick houses white or off-white. After years of mulling it over, we took the leap of painting our brick a few weeks ago, and I’m loving the fresh, clean, more modern look. Before Since moving into ...
Every passage is a destination at Chanticleer
February 28, 2022 Yellow canna and bamboo sculpture by Marcia Donahue along Chanticleer’s elevated walkway Chanticleer makes each step, each path, a place of discovery and delight. I visited the Philadelphia-area garden on my road trip last fall. This is Part 5 in my series about creative, romantic, stunning-in-every-way Chanticleer ...
Flowery meadow instead of lawn at Chanticleer’s house garden
February 26, 2022 You’d expect a garden surrounding an estate house to be formal, restrained, with neat lawns and containers that serve to frame the grand structure. The house garden at Chanticleer, a Pennsylvania “pleasure garden” I visited during my East Coast road trip last October, upends this convention through ...
Plants hold court at Chanticleer’s Teacup and Tennis Court gardens
February 23, 2022 Teacup Garden in 2021 A teacup-shaped fountain in the entry garden at Chanticleer gives the Teacup Garden its name. Each year the plantings around the fountain are redesigned to create a bold, new theatrical vignette. I visited Chanticleer in Wayne, Pennsylvania, last October on my East Coast ...
A garden rising from ruin at Chanticleer
February 22, 2022 View from Chanticleer’s Gravel Garden to the Ruin My last post overflowed with images of the glorious gravel garden at Chanticleer, a public garden in Wayne, Pennsylvania, that I visited on my road trip last October. That garden segues right into the Ruin, which I’ll share today ...
Gravel garden at Chanticleer reminds me of Texas
February 21, 2022 Whether you love plants, exciting planting combos, design and gardening artistry, or overlooks and hideaways to sit and enjoy a beautiful garden, Chanticleer has it all. Located near Philadelphia, Chanticleer dubs itself “a pleasure garden,” and it’s been my favorite public garden since I first visited in ...
Garden path wonderland at Paxson Hill Farm, part 3
February 15, 2022 My detour to Paxson Hill Farm‘s beautiful and imaginative gardens in New Hope, Pennsylvania, proved to be a highlight of my big road trip last October. Here’s Part 3 of my tour. Click here for Part 1 and Part 2. Railroad tie path Leaving the hobbit house ...
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 ...
Autumn meadows and monarchs at Wildflower Center
February 07, 2022 The Center’s iconic lookout tower, which doubles as a water-collecting cistern When Loree of Danger Garden came to Austin last October, we visited the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center on her last day. I was happy she got to see it a second time, particularly since her ...
