Spiderwort, Blue Elf aloe, and other spring blooms
March 18, 2015 Spring is in earnest now. Every time I stroll through the garden I see something new blooming, and around town the redbuds and Texas mountain laurels are at peak bloom. Mexican plums and Bradford pears are past peak, and the Texas bluebonnets are just starting. The joyous ...
Walls going up and paths going down
September 26, 2014 As with all landscaping projects, the stucco wall construction is taking longer than I expected, partly for the happy reason that we’ve had some rain, so no complaints about that. I am delighted with the work so far. The cinderblock walls have been mortared in place on ...
JJ De Sousa’s bold garden digs: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling
July 31, 2014 What’s black and white and red-orange all over? The stylishly mod yet playful garden of JJ De Sousa, that’s what. Owner of Digs Inside & Out home-and-garden shop, which I visited pre-Fling, JJ has an enviable talent for creating inviting, colorful garden rooms, perfect for entertaining, which ...
Loree Bohl’s Danger Garden: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling
July 27, 2014 One of the most anticipated gardens on the 2014 Garden Bloggers Fling in Portland, Oregon, recently was Danger Garden, the plant-lustful playground of one of our hosts, Loree of Danger Garden blog fame. With an adoration for spiny, spiky, and bold-foliage plants and an artistic eye for ...
Shelley’s sunflower forest and neighbor-friendly patio
June 14, 2014 To celebrate her daughter’s graduation from high school last week, my dear friend Shelley threw a casual garden party. I enjoyed her garden so much that I popped back over yesterday afternoon to take a few pictures to share with you. Shelley and Isabel call this their ...
Coneflower cornucopia and other garden delights
June 12, 2014 The garden photobomber strikes again, this time peeking out of a bower of purple coneflower and ‘Color Guard’ yucca. A wider view shows that I was being watched as I photographed the pond garden. Early summer is a pretty time here, as the coneflowers color-coordinate with the ...
All-American blue and red in my garden
May 26, 2014 I threw a little soiree in honor of an out-of-town friend last week and got my garden all spruced up for the occasion. The last of the live oak leaves — or as close to last as I’m going to get — were finally banished, chairs and ...
And the front door’s new color is…
May 25, 2014 Turquoise, with a greenish bronze on the sidelights. Something different, eh? You wouldn’t believe how many bad color choices I made last week to get here. Or maybe you would. I am picky about color, but I have never been able to pick the right color on ...
Screech owlet in the house
May 13, 2014 We’d seen glimpses of two owlets in the owl box — a couple of fuzzy heads jostling when Mom or Dad swooped in with dinner — but yesterday was my first clear sighting of one of the screech owl babies. He or she perched confidently in the ...
Drive-By Gardens: Aloes abloom in modern dry garden of Karen Lantz
April 03, 2014 ‘Blue Elf’ aloes, purple prickly pear, gold sedum, and smooth sotol and silver ponyfoot in the steel ring, with an Opuntia “tree” behind I’m hearing from many of you how much you enjoy my Drive-By Gardens posts, and so I’m pleased to offer a third this week ...
Garden walk as spring – and live oak leaf drop – begin
March 14, 2014 My sore muscles today are payment for a beautiful gardening day yesterday. I puttered about, hefting bags of mulch and decomposed granite, repotting a few containers, planting a couple of mahonias (after 5 months in nursery pots in my back yard — the shame!), pruning, and generally ...
Evening in the garden after the late-winter cut-back
February 17, 2014 We woke to fog yesterday, and in the soft light and early morning chill, I got started on the garden’s annual cut-back of perennials and grasses. Six hours later, with muscles aching but the garden cleaned up for spring, I called it a day. I had much ...
Leveling a pot and potting it up
February 09, 2014 Sunny and 65 degrees F, yesterday was flat-out perfect gardening weather, and I puttered, planted, and potted nearly all day. One of my last projects before I collapsed indoors involved a bit of rearranging and ground prep in order to pot up a ‘Sharkskin’ agave that’s been ...
Warm up in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
January 07, 2014 Revisiting my trip to Beijing proved so enjoyable on a cold winter day that I’m continuing the travel theme. Next up: Mexico! In March 2006, just one month after I started this blog, my husband and I traveled to San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico. I ...
Read This: The Bulb Hunter
December 10, 2013The Bulb Hunter Flower bulbs — those turnipy looking, husky things in mesh bags, crowded into crayola-bright display bins at the big-box stores — suffer from granny’s-garden syndrome: they’re seen as old-fashioned, fussy, and patience-straining in today’s want-it-now culture. Unlike a flat of annuals, they don’t offer instant ...
Fall hike at St. Edward’s Park in northwest Austin
November 18, 2013 We’ve been hiking at St. Edward’s Park — more of a greenbelt trail, really — for 20 years, enjoying the reliable flow of Bull Creek, the treetop views from the bluff that follows the creek, and the park’s relative solitude, especially as compared to Barton Creek Greenbelt ...
