Bloomin’ cactus, verbena, and Moby
April 22, 2016 It’s been raining cats and dogs here in Austin — and raining lions and wolves, if that’s an appropriate comparison, over in Houston. Our lakes are full again (which seems a miracle, considering how low they got during the multi-year drought), and spring seems full of promise ...
Dry-garden lushness: Linda Peterson’s San Antonio garden
April 18, 2016 Rooftop view of the walled courtyard and front garden. Not a blade of lawn grass anywhere, nor is it missed. Seeing one of my new favorite gardens requires an hour-and-a-half road trip to San Antonio, but it’s worth every trafficky mile. Linda Peterson, whose dreamy garden I ...
Festive spring at Lucinda Hutson’s purple cottage
April 08, 2016 Many times over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Lucinda Hutson‘s purple cottage in the Rosedale neighborhood of central Austin. It’s always a riot of flowers and festive decor. On Tuesday I stopped by to visit again and am so glad I did. Butter-yellow blossoms ...
Dreamy blues and a few surprises in the garden of Lori Daul
March 29, 2016 When a gardener urges you to come over to see something in bloom, you know you better say yes. Lori Daul of The Gardener of Good and Evil tempted me into a quick visit last Saturday — not with an apple but with “the last of the ...
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 ...
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 ...
Bottle trees, a Southern tradition that brightens the garden
January 13, 2016Writer and teacher Paula Panich visited my garden a few weeks ago, and if I hadn’t already known she was from California by way of Connecticut — i.e., not a Southerner — she gave it away when she asked what was the story with the blue bottles displayed ...
Garden-tour fluffing and fall Foliage Follow-Up
October 16, 2015 A new yellow Hesperaloe parviflora peeks around a Yucca rostrata in the lower garden. I’ve attended many a garden tour, but I had no idea how much work prepping for one requires. Not because anyone tells you to, but because your own sense of perfectionism kicks in ...
Come see my garden on tour this Saturday, Oct. 17th
October 12, 2015 After a year of preparation, it’s finally here: my first participation in a garden tour! This Saturday, October 17, from 9 am to 4 pm, my garden will be open to the public, along with 6 others, for the Inside Austin Gardens Tour. On the website, you ...
Foliage gardening apologies: do you do it?
September 06, 2015 At least once or twice a month I find myself trying to explain my garden to politely interested non-gardeners. A couple of days ago the smiling inquiry was from a new doctor. Upon learning that I liked to garden, she asked the standard question, “What do you ...
The Gardener of Good and Evil makes my garden look good
August 28, 2015 Water visually cools Pam’s back garden. Photo by Lori Daul. Although she claims both a halo and a pitchfork in her blog name, Lori Daul of The Gardener of Good and Evil is purely a force for good — or at least that’s what I believe after ...
Stained-glass leaves and Crazy Eyes snake
August 22, 2015 Even a dark-green, fibrous leaf, like that of cast-iron plant (Aspidistra elatior), glows like a stained-glass window when backlit by the setting sun. In the lowest, shadiest part of my garden, it fringes a native Mexican buckeye (Ungnadia speciosa), which is also aglow. A tunnel of incandescent ...
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 ...
Tough August survivors for Foliage Follow-Up
August 16, 2015 Mexican honeysuckle adds leafy lushness in the dappled shade of live oaks and is flowering to boot. Its companions include Mexican weeping bamboo, Agave colorata, foxtail fern, and Pennisetum purpureum ‘Vertigo’. These are “the bitter days in the garden,” according to West Texan Susan Tomlinson, who blogs ...
Before and after: 6 years making a garden
May 25, 2015 Bluesy garden: our upper patio, just off the living room and master bedroom It’s always eye-opening to see how much a garden has evolved by comparing before and after images. We moved into our current home in October 2008, and I started tinkering with a few beds ...
Soggy garden blues make me happy
May 12, 2015 During the horrible drought year of 2011, I swore I’d never complain about rain again, and I’m not tempted now. My garden has had nearly 5 inches of rain since last Tuesday, washing out a gravel path twice and incubating a healthy crop of mosquitoes. And how ...
