Read This: Gardentopia
June 12, 2019 Many would-be gardeners, and even gardeners with plenty of experience, feel overwhelmed by the idea of making a design for their yard. Those with a passion for collecting plants may find themselves especially puzzled by how to bring their garden together cohesively and creatively. If this describes ...
Read This: Wildflowers of Texas
February 20, 2019 An advance guard of bluebonnets scattered across the grassy shoulder of MoPac at Bee Cave Road augurs blue battalions soon to arrive. When they do, green roadsides will surrender and turn sky-blue, touching off the annual frenzy of bluebonnet peeping and photo ops. Parents will crouch before ...
Gardening book roundup for holiday gift ideas
December 08, 2018 Wondering what to get your garden-loving friend or family member (or yourself) for the holidays? Here’s a roundup of recent books with something for everyone, whether their interest leans more to ornamental design, edibles, or ecology. Dreamscapes: Inspiration and Beauty in Gardens Near and Far by Claire ...
Book Review: Dry Gardens: High Style for Low Water Gardens
November 03, 2018 Not so long ago, a book about dry gardens in the U.S. would have featured cactus and rocks. Dry stuff indeed, except for the cactus aficionado. Over the past couple of decades, as drought and water shortages have led to a growing acceptance that thirsty lawns and ...
Classic and older garden books worth seeking out
October 16, 2018 When I started this blog waaaaay back in 2006, I wrote a handful of short reviews for my new Book Reviews page, pulling from my then-favorite collection of plant guides, design books, memoirs, garden-related fiction, and even poetry. Since then I’ve reviewed nearly 100 more gardening or ...
Read This: Desert Gardens of Steve Martino
October 12, 2018 Weeds and walls. That’s how Phoenix landscape architect and native son Steve Martino describes his life’s work of designing gardens in the Arizona desert. Steve has a knack for simplifying the language of design and explaining how his own designs work. “Weeds” is his shorthand for native ...
Today is the last day of cactus and succulent sale at Zilker Garden
September 02, 2018 Need a plant fix today, my fellow Austinites and succulent lovers? Sunday, 9/2, is the final day of the Austin Cactus & Succulent Society’s fall show and sale at Zilker Botanical Garden. I arrived just after opening on Saturday, and the main parking lot was already full ...
Read This: Hot Color, Dry Garden can help you design your waterwise garden
August 26, 2018 Homeowners who want a waterwise garden, particularly if they live in the U.S. Southwest, often feel that their options are limited to cactus and gravel — a “zero-scape,” as it’s commonly called. If instead you’d like to have a true xeriscape (pronounced zeer-escape), a garden that doesn’t ...
Sissinghurst Castle Garden, part 2: White Garden, meadow, and tower views
August 04, 2018 Has any garden been more admired, copied, and written about than Vita Sackville-West’s White Garden at Sissinghurst? We visited in mid-June, and I was excited to finally step into this glowing space and see it for myself. Twilight would be better for appreciating the pale effect of ...
Old school sightseeing in Oxford, England
July 16, 2018 English longhorns at Christ Church Meadow in Oxford Last month, after two nights in London, we rented a car and drove to Oxford, our home base for several day trips we’d planned for the remainder of our vacation. Oxford is a lovely old city, and we enjoyed ...
Read This: The Grumpy Gardener by Steve Bender
July 12, 2018 Here in the South for the next several months, the Death Star is set on high beam, so it’s time to quit trying so hard. Drop your shovel and pruners, grab a cold one, and plop down with an entertaining book. And have I got a good ...
Bloggers soaked up Austin at Garden Bloggers Fling
May 11, 2018 For 11 years I’ve traveled to cities around North America to attend Garden Bloggers Fling, and I’ve helped organize two Flings held in Austin — in and again last weekend. Normally I take hundreds of pictures of the gardens I visit. (Go to Categories in my sidebar ...
Read This: The Less Is More Garden, plus a book giveaway!
March 21, 2018 When I opened this book and saw the title-page photo of a tiny patio garden awash in chartreuse foliage and leafy texture, with two well-chosen pieces of garden art, a pair of acid-green chairs, and a steel fire pit, I knew I was going to love the ...
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 ...
Foliage architecture (and art) on Rice University campus
October 16, 2017 At my alma mater in Houston last month (right after Hurricane Harvey), I appreciated the marriage of foliage and architecture at the Brochstein Pavilion, a remarkable structure and hub of student activity that didn’t exist when I was a student at Rice University. A hedge of tightly ...
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 ...
