Garden art

April 21, 2009 Before the roller derby, we spent part of a beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon at Living Desert, a cactus nursery and gift shop out on Highway 71 West in Bee Cave. Living Desert is known for piles of colorful slag glass for sale in the back yard and ...

April 01, 2009 If you’ve been following the design of my new circle garden, you might be wondering how it looks now that the initial planting and mulching have been done. Here’s a nearly 360-degree look at the space. Pictured above is the view as you come into the back ...

January 27, 2009 See that hint of blue glass behind the ‘Radrazz’ rose? Could it be? Yes! The bottle tree is back. It’s more of a bottlebrush tree than before because I used more bottles and shorter branches. As you can see, I still need a couple more bottles to ...

October 07, 2008 I’m back! After a whirlwind weekend of packing, lifting, and unpacking, we’re settling into our new house. I will post pictures of the new yard soon, but all my attention so far has been focused on the inside of the house. Boxes still loom in the hallways ...

July 23, 2008 Among all the beautiful, bold, and imaginative gardens at Chanticleer, why do I like the Gravel Garden best? It so resembles the dry gardens of west Austin that I feel a little sheepish to admit that in this lush, Pennsylvania garden I preferred the familiarity of home ...

July 20, 2008 If you haven’t been to Chanticleer, you must go. Hop on a plane or jump in the car and go. Now. Dubbed “a pleasure garden” in its brochure, it lives up to the billing. From the moment we arrived, just after lunchtime on a quiet Sunday in ...

June 15, 2008 Autumn sage (Salvia greggii ), bat-faced cuphea (Cuphea llavea ), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea ), and ‘Carefree Beauty’ rose. Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day snuck up on me this month. Rather than spend several hours today shooting each flower in my garden, cropping, resizing, and posting, I’m taking ...

June 15, 2008 Autumn sage (Salvia greggii ), bat-faced cuphea (Cuphea llavea ), purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea ), and ‘Carefree Beauty’ rose. Garden Bloggers’ Bloom Day snuck up on me this month. Rather than spend several hours today shooting each flower in my garden, cropping, resizing, and posting, I’m taking ...

June 13, 2008 During the past week of 100-degree days, I enjoyed a twice-daily visit to Switch Willo Stables in northwest Austin, where my daughter attended a riding day camp. What a beautiful, lush oasis tucked away in a neighborhood that nowadays is practically in-town. When Switch Willo opened back ...

May 14, 2008 Blue pot with dianthus Can a garden you’ve visited only three times, briefly, seem almost as familiar as your own? It can if it’s Tom Spencer’s. At Soul of the Garden, Tom has been chronicling his garden—and “exploring the garden of life”—with stunning photographs and introspective essays ...

May 14, 2008 Blue pot with dianthus Can a garden you’ve visited only three times, briefly, seem almost as familiar as your own? It can if it’s Tom Spencer’s. At Soul of the Garden, Tom has been chronicling his garden—and “exploring the garden of life”—with stunning photographs and introspective essays ...

April 13, 2008 On Sunday after the Garden Bloggers Spring Fling, the out-of-towners who stayed an extra day joined some of the Austin garden bloggers for a personal tour of herbal-cookbook author Lucinda Hutson’s garden. The other Spring Flingers may remember Lucinda from the happy hour at my house on ...

April 13, 2008 On Sunday after the Garden Bloggers Spring Fling, the out-of-towners who stayed an extra day joined some of the Austin garden bloggers for a personal tour of herbal-cookbook author Lucinda Hutson’s garden. The other Spring Flingers may remember Lucinda from the happy hour at my house on ...

March 18, 2008 Front porch vignette Last Friday we drove three hours east to Houston to visit my sister and her partner in their house in the Heights. Despite unseasonably hot and humid weather on Friday and Saturday, we had a wonderful time kicking around at the Houston Rodeo, shopping ...

March 18, 2008 Front porch vignette Last Friday we drove three hours east to Houston to visit my sister and her partner in their house in the Heights. Despite unseasonably hot and humid weather on Friday and Saturday, we had a wonderful time kicking around at the Houston Rodeo, shopping ...

February 25, 2008 Front-porch “farmer” at Wildseed Farms It’s 89 degrees on my shady back porch right now, at 3 in the afternoon. I just came inside from weeding the sunny front garden, and it must be at least 90 or 92 out there. Summer-like temps in February, you might ...