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 ...
Water feature magic in Lori Daul’s garden
January 24, 2022 My friend Lori Daul‘s garden in South Austin has evolved, over the many years I’ve visited, from a sunny, romantic space filled with roses to a shadier yet still lush paradise where bold blue agaves and black elephant ears get equal billing, where dry gardens meet water ...
A Texas-style crevice garden – and neighborly collaboration – brings midcentury Austin home to vibrant life
January 18, 2022 At the end of October, when Loree of Danger Garden was in town for her Garden Spark talk, we finagled an invitation to the tropicalesque garden of John Ignacio. John in turn introduced us to his friend and neighbor Coleson Bruce, who kindly allowed a couple of ...
Ceremony garden shop in Wimberley
December 30, 2021 While at Wimberley Market Days in early December to shop at my friend Cynthia’s booth, she told me about a must-see garden boutique in the town center called Ceremony. My friends and I made a beeline for it right after a catfish lunch along Cypress Creek. Ceremony ...
Yucca and palm fantasyland at John Fairey Garden
December 17, 2021 I’d been to The John Fairey Garden (formerly Peckerwood Garden) a half-dozen times before my late-October visit with Loree Bohl of Danger Garden, who was in town to give a Garden Spark talk. Frustratingly, I’d never toured the dry garden, though I’d glimpse its bristling yuccas and ...
Garden design lessons from a Texas gravel garden
November 10, 2021 Blue grama grass and whale’s tongue agave I’m always inspired by Linda Peterson’s low-water gravel garden in San Antonio, which normally is studded with gigantic Weber agaves, sculptural prickly pears, rivers of starfish-shaped soap aloes, and strategic screening shrubs that soften fencing and create a green backdrop ...
Reds for fall and foliage power
September 21, 2021 Ah, end of summer in Texas, and fall only a few weeks away. It’s still a bit too early for the fresh flowering of our “second spring,” but festive reds blaze among the ferny foliage of cypress vine (Ipomoea quamoclit) on the deck railing. Everyone warns me ...
Going batty at Bracken Cave, where 20 million bats take flight
September 14, 2021 Austin is justifiably proud of the 1.5-million-strong bat colony that roosts under downtown’s Congress Avenue Bridge. I’ve watched the nightly emergence from the bridge as the bats take flight many times over the years. But when I heard that nearby Bracken Cave contains 15 to 20 million ...
Pretty in pink
July 24, 2021 Right after a summer rain pink rain lilies (Zephryanthes ‘Labuffarosea’) pop up, seemingly overnight. I don’t even remember planting this bulb here, but what a serendipitous pairing it makes with chartreuse ‘Everillo’ sedge. The flowers may be short-lived, but they are lovely when they appear. Another pink ...
A week of bloom spikes and rain
May 22, 2021 We had such prolonged rain this week that I lost track of how many inches it came to — 4 inches for sure if not 5. The garden responded to the extra water and mild May temps with a profusion of growth, including bloom spikes on yuccas, ...
Modern ranch garden embraces water collection and wildflowers in New Braunfels
May 17, 2021 Last spring Cody and Michelle Koehler finished their garden installation at their home in New Braunfels, Texas. Less than a year later, February’s epic freeze killed most of their large specimen plants, including Weber agaves, olive and palo verde trees, and toothless sotol. Like everyone else in ...
Hello, flowering cacti and vines; goodbye, pipe-planted sotol
May 07, 2021 After a good rain last week and now temps in the upper 80s, my cacti have started blooming. And oh, those flowers! I love their jewel-bright colors and satiny petals, which strikingly contrast with the spiny, austere plants themselves. Here’s a new one in my collection: peanut ...
My succulents, vines, and groundcovers: Alive, dead or in-between? Evaluating plants 2 months after Texas freeze
May 01, 2021 Foxtail ferns regrowing quickly from the roots Today I’m taking a look at all the remaining plants in my garden: my small succulents and cacti, vines, and groundcovers, as well as bulbs and rhizomes and a few annuals. I grow some of my small succulents in pots, ...
Spring sights in the garden
April 29, 2021 ‘Frazzle Dazzle’ dyckia My spring planting is done, and I think all my post-freeze cutting back is done too. There are still brown shrubs and dead-looking small trees (like a pomegranate coming back from the roots, with a few leaves here and there on upper branches) taking ...
Potted characters at East Austin Succulents
March 26, 2021 Weird and wonderful creatures with plants for brains — sound like anybody you know? — greeted me at East Austin Succulents last week. They were silent types with big personalities. This ghostly guy with ghost plant (Graptopetalum paraguayense) sprouting from his forehead may have been my favorite ...
Still cleaning up after the freeze but making progress
March 16, 2021 In the 3 weeks since the Big Freeze, there’s been much gnashing of teeth and grim side-eye given to the cold-toasted garden. There’s been escape. But mostly there’s been a slow acceptance of the changed garden and daily efforts at cutting it all back, removing plants that ...
