Agaves

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 10, 2008 Last Saturday morning I had the pleasure of meeting professional photographer Rob Cardillo and observing as he photographed my front garden. He was scouting for images of regional design for his upcoming fourth book with Nancy Ondra, about perennial maintenance, and for ideas he can pitch to ...

May 20, 2008 Earlier I posted about the loss of a favorite plant, Manfreda ‘Macho Mocha,’ also called mangave, to the agave snout-nosed weevil. I’d planted the mangave to show it off in a yellow-green glazed pot by the front door, but once the weevils got to it, the effect, ...

May 20, 2008 Earlier I posted about the loss of a favorite plant, Manfreda ‘Macho Mocha,’ also called mangave, to the agave snout-nosed weevil. I’d planted the mangave to show it off in a yellow-green glazed pot by the front door, but once the weevils got to it, the effect, ...

May 20, 2008 My mangave, the beautiful, sculptural, lusciously named and, let’s not forget, expensive Manfreda ‘Macho Mocha’ has been murdered by the agave snout-nosed weevil. I bought it to fill a new glazed pot last winter. It looked great for about a month, as shown above, and then it ...

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 30, 2008 This month’s topic for Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop, hosted by Gardening Gone Wild, is Front-Yard Gardens. Unlike many people who start gardening in back and work their way out front, I took the opposite approach. Before I’d even moved into this house, before I gave thought to ...

April 30, 2008 This month’s topic for Garden Bloggers’ Design Workshop, hosted by Gardening Gone Wild, is Front-Yard Gardens. Unlike many people who start gardening in back and work their way out front, I took the opposite approach. Before I’d even moved into this house, before I gave thought to ...

April 29, 2008 How did I get into this mess? And more important, how do I get out? All material © 2006-2008 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited ...

April 04, 2008 On her Blotanical “Plot” (site no longer active), in her entry for Garden to See Before I Die, Carol of May Dreams Gardens has written, “All those gardens of the Austin garden bloggers!” As it happens, a number of the Austin garden bloggers have had a burning ...

April 04, 2008 On her Blotanical “Plot” (site no longer active), in her entry for Garden to See Before I Die, Carol of May Dreams Gardens has written, “All those gardens of the Austin garden bloggers!” As it happens, a number of the Austin garden bloggers have had a burning ...

March 29, 2008 Texas bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis ) in blue and pink combine with succulents and a writhing variegated agave to make a springtime scene the out-of-town Spring Flingers are not likely to see at home. “Amen!” they may be thinking. I’ll admit, I didn’t plan for those pinkbonnets to ...

March 25, 2008 I consider this ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (Agave ovatifolia ) to be the anchor of my front garden. Amid a sea of fine-textured plants like Mexican oregano, bulbine, rock penstemon, narrowleaf zinnia, and skullcap, the broad paddles of its blue-green leaves keep the whole design afloat. Up close ...

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 ...