Cabbagetown garden art and Hugh Garner Co-Op Green Roof: Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling
June 29, 2015 The teeny tiny gardens of Toronto’s Cabbagetown neighborhood of Victorian homes kicked off our final day of Toronto Garden Bloggers Fling in early June. Due to the tight quarters, pictures of artful vignettes were easier to take than overview photos, and I’m sharing my favorites here. Cabbagetown ...
Farewell visit to James David’s Austin garden, part 2
May 20, 2015 A grand limestone staircase bisected by a rill leads from the back of the house to a large pond in the lower garden. Yesterday I showed you around the upper level of James David’s magnificent garden, which I visited in late March and which is currently for ...
Portland Japanese Garden: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling
July 25, 2014 The second day of the 7th annual Garden Bloggers Fling, held in Portland in mid-July, began in the renowned Portland Japanese Garden, often described as the most authentic of its kind outside of Japan. I had visited a few days earlier with my husband on a hot, ...
Old Germantown Gardens: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling
July 20, 2014 The first private garden on the Portland Garden Bloggers Fling tour last weekend was, at 2 acres, large enough to accommodate our entire group of approximately 80 bloggers. Old Germantown Gardens, created over 23 years by Bruce Wakefield and Jerry Grossnickle, is a masterpiece of a garden ...
Hippos, bottle art sculpture, and a free-spirited garden journey with Donna and Mike Fowler
May 22, 2014 Could the official mascot of Hutto, Texas, possibly be anything other than a hippo? The Hutto Hippos. Nope, it’s perfect. Located 30 miles northeast of Austin, the formerly sleepy hamlet of Hutto is growing as quickly as a hippopotamus in a lake full of duckweed. But the ...
Nursery visit: The Arbor Gate near Houston
April 13, 2014 My sister, who lives in Houston, expressed amazement at how many gardens I managed to squeeze into my visit to her city a couple of weekends ago. It’s true. I’ve shown you four Open Days tour gardens, plus four drive-by gardens that were pretty fabulous, plus a ...
Houston Open Days Tour 2014: 3640 Del Monte Drive Garden
April 10, 2014 The last stop on my recap of the Garden Conservancy-sponsored Houston Open Days tour on March 29th is a New Orleans-esque mansion in the tony River Oaks neighborhood. From the front walk you see a veranda with wisteria dripping from the wrought-iron railing and a narrow foundation ...
Tanzanian safari: Arrival in Arusha and village market
January 10, 2014 During this gardening downtime, I am really enjoying reliving some of my exotic travels here at Digging. Whether you are an armchair traveler, or making notes for a future trip of your own, or just seeing how my experience compares with yours, I hope you’re enjoying these ...
Hillside magic in the Nichols Garden: San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling
August 06, 2013 Our 4th stop on the final day of the San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling was my absolute favorite of the Fling: the Ann Nichols Garden. Gorgeous plants, beautifully combined and meticulously maintained, adorn a series of intimate garden rooms on a hillside lot. A subtropical front garden ...
How to spring clean your stock tank container pond
March 26, 2013 A few years ago I wrote a post explaining how to make a container pond in a stock tank, and many readers have since written to tell me they’ve made their own ponds by following my instructions. I also get a lot of questions about how to ...
Visit to San Antonio's Japanese Tea Garden
March 13, 2013 Day-tripping in San Antonio last weekend, my family and I made time for a stroll through the Japanese Tea Garden, located near the zoo in Brackenridge Park. Constructed in an old limestone quarry, the gardens are framed and accessed by fascinating and unusual stonework, including a pagoda-like ...
Visit to San Antonio’s Japanese Tea Garden
March 13, 2013 Day-tripping in San Antonio last weekend, my family and I made time for a stroll through the Japanese Tea Garden, located near the zoo in Brackenridge Park. Constructed in an old limestone quarry, the gardens are framed and accessed by fascinating and unusual stonework, including a pagoda-like ...
Winterizing a stock tank pond
November 22, 2012 “How to make a container pond in a stock tank” is consistently one of my most-viewed posts, and many readers have written to tell me they’ve made their own ponds by following my instructions. Recently two people asked me how to winterize their ponds, so I decided ...
Austin Open Days Tour 2012: Garden of Jeff Pavlat and Ray Clayton
November 15, 2012 My sixth and final stop on November 3rd’s Open Days tour was the garden of my friend Jeff Pavlat, located in the Westlake area. Jeff is vice president of the Austin Cactus and Succulent Society, and he’s kindly invited me to visit his garden before (click for ...
Austin Open Days Tour 2012: Garden of Yvonne Tocquigny
November 05, 2012 My second stop on Saturday’s Garden Conservancy’s Open Days tour was the courtyard garden of Yvonne Tocquigny and Tom Fornoff, located in West Austin’s tony Tarrytown neighborhood. Elegant but relaxed and beautifully designed, this garden has a secret-garden aspect, with green walls erected in front and in ...
Support Your Independent Nursery: Hill Country Water Gardens & Nursery GIVEAWAY
October 15, 2012 Each week in October, which is Support Your Independent Nursery Month, I am featuring one of my favorite Austin-area nurseries here at Digging. To make things even more interesting, I’m also hosting a giveaway every week—one from each nursery! This week I’m shining a spotlight on Hill ...
