Spring blooms and greens
March 26, 2016 My only Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis) this year is a volunteer that popped up in a decomposed-granite path next to the driveway. I should just seed this whole path with bluebonnets and enjoy the show next year. The live oaks that shade my entire garden recently dropped ...
Lone screech owl and other creature features
March 24, 2016 Every day, through the open window, I hear the thin cries of cedar waxwings as they strafe the back yard, flying from ligustrums to yaupons in the greenbelt behind our house to polish off the late-season berries. With their sleek, tan feathers and robbers’ masks, they are ...
Fresh greens and purple power for Foliage Follow-Up
March 16, 2016 Chartreuse and dark gray make a trendy combo that’s as pleasing in the garden as in the home. Evergreen Texas sedge (Carex texensis) practically glows in spring with the addition of nubby seedheads. A wider view shows purple heart (Tradescantia pallida) romping through the sedge, with the ...
Orange you glad it’s spring?
March 08, 2016 The weather’s not yet hot, but the flowers are. I’m embracing orange and reveling in the saturation. Thanks to an unusual, freeze-free winter, the garden has a jump-start on lush growth. Mexican honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera) is smothered in pumpkin-colored blossoms, framed by Mexican weeping bamboo (Otatea acuminata ...
Giveaway winner…and bouquets of flowers
March 07, 2016 A Sunday stroll down Austin’s Rosewood Avenue revealed this cottagey sidewalk garden outside Civilitude. Jam-packed with cornflowers, poppies, and more, the flowery strip is a charming gift to the neighborhood. Poppies galore! Back at home, ‘Amethyst Flame’ bearded irises are opening. I love them backlit with bamboo ...
Spring comes like a flash flood in Texas
March 05, 2016 All at once it’s here: the insistent flush of spring. After Austin’s winter-that-wasn’t, spring arrived early this year thanks to above-average temperatures. SXSW attendees may see the unusual sight of Texas mountain laurels blooming alongside Texas bluebonnets, which are beginning to carpet roadsides blue about a month ...
Instagramming my garden
February 19, 2016 I resisted joining Instagram for the longest time because it seemed like One More Thing to keep up with. But its huge popularity and my dawning recognition that it’s ideal for sharing gardening goodness (my mission statement, after all!) have convinced me to take the plunge. And ...
Shrub trouble for Foliage Follow-Up
February 16, 2016 I have shrub trouble (shrubble?). No, this isn’t a picture of it. This is my succulent wall, which is doing beautifully this mild, dry winter, and which simply glows in late afternoon light. Here’s the “shrubble.” One of my favorite evergreens for shade and deer resistance, Chinese ...
Happy Friday, friends!
February 12, 2016 Thank you, Amazon editors, for naming The Water-Saving Garden one of your Best Books of February in Crafts, Hobbies and Home! Happy Friday, y’all! _______________________ Upcoming Events and News Join me for my kick-off garden talk for my new book, The Water-Saving Garden, on February 27, at ...
Aloe from the other siiiiiide
February 02, 2016 With apologies to Adele and her earworm of a song, aloes are still saying hello in my garden this mild winter with spring-like flowering. I find their leaves equally eye-catching, with white spots reminiscent of disco-ball light effects. Believe it or not, this is the same aloe ...
Plant This: Purple prickly pear adds rich winter color
January 23, 2016 Photos of rich-purple pads on a spineless prickly pear called ‘Santa Rita’ sent me running to the nurseries about 10 years ago. I came home with this, a purple prickly pear I thought was ‘Santa Rita’ but now believe to be Opuntia macrocentra. What’s the difference? Long ...
Plant This: Little Grapes gomphrena
January 18, 2016 Since first planting it at Green Hall Garden in 2008, I’ve known this delicately branching gomphrena cultivar as ‘Grapes’, but it also goes by ‘Little Grapes’, ‘Itsy Bitsy’, and airy bachelor’s buttons. By any name, it’s a moderately reliable perennial in my fall garden, sometimes remaining in ...
Sunshine and succulents for January Foliage Follow-Up
January 16, 2016 I wait all summer for winter days like these. China-blue skies. Warm sunshine on my face, the Death Star tame and friendly. A garden as yet untouched by a freeze — which is unusual, actually. We would normally have had several overnight freezes by mid-January, but so ...
Winter pizzazz of flowering maple and ornamental grasses
January 11, 2016 A mild winter makes flowering maple (Abutilon) happy, and that makes me happy. I adore its pink-veined, balloon-skirted flowers. Here you see it in the foreground, part of the stock-tank pond garden. Let’s walk up the hillside path, shall we? But first, check out how big the ...
Aloe surprise and prepping for owls
January 10, 2016 Aloes bloom in profusion at the Huntington in Los Angeles at this time of year, and my winter-blooming ‘Blue Elf’ aloe is already sending up asparagus-shaped bloom spikes. But soap aloe (Aloe maculata) prefers warmer weather to strut its stuff in my Austin garden. And yet… …with ...
