Install low-voltage outdoor lighting and create a welcoming glow
February 01, 2017 It’s only taken us 8 years to install outdoor lighting along the foundation of our house, and now that it’s done I’m wondering why on earth we waited so long. I love the warm, welcoming glow that a few wall-washing low-voltage lights creates. What a change from ...
Rainy-day winter garden
January 17, 2017 The weather may be dreary, but I like it. Cool (but not freezing) temps and a gentle rain give me a reason to get stuff done indoors while the quiet garden just soaks it all in. The Moby spawn — Agave ovatifolia babies — are looking good ...
Drive-By Gardens: Front-yard style in Tarrytown neighborhood
December 15, 2016 Cruising through tony Tarrytown neighborhood in West Austin last week, I slowed to a crawl to admire several houses with appealing front-yard style. For understated Christmas pizzazz, I like the way these homeowners hung a big, green wreath over their moss-green front door flanked by dramatic pots ...
Round Top charms Texas style
November 10, 2016 On the way home from the Antique Rose Emporium last weekend, Mom and I detoured to Round Top to see my friend Ryann Ford‘s antiques and homegoods shop, Townsend Provisions. We arrived right as the town was closing down, and as we strolled the main square, I ...
Roses, butterflies & garden goodness at Antique Rose Emporium
November 08, 2016 On Saturday my mom and I drove out to Brenham, Texas, for the Antique Rose Emporium‘s Fall Festival of Roses, where I was one of the day’s speakers. A gray sky spit rain on us during the 2-hour drive, but it held off as we strolled around ...
Roses, butterflies & garden goodness at Antique Rose Emporium
November 08, 2016 On Saturday my mom and I drove out to Brenham, Texas, for the Antique Rose Emporium‘s Fall Festival of Roses, where I was one of the day’s speakers. A gray sky spit rain on us during the 2-hour drive, but it held off as we strolled around ...
Lucinda’s Dia de los Muertos garden
November 01, 2016 My friend Lucinda Hutson celebrates Dia de los Muertos like no one else I know. Her colorful, Mexican-inspired home and garden in the Rosedale neighborhood of central Austin grows even more vibrant for Day of the Dead, and inside she stages elaborate table displays and beautiful altars ...
Garden artistry at Wouterina De Raad’s Mosaic Sculpture Park, Part 1: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
August 04, 2016 Each year at Garden Bloggers Fling, there’s at least one garden that moves me deeply, that creates a lasting mood and feels like an extension of the gardener him- or herself. At this year’s Fling in Minneapolis, that garden was the creation of Wouterina De Raad. (As ...
Corten potager beauty in Rhonda Fleming Hayes’s garden: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
July 24, 2016 I’m dubbing this summer Escape to the North. In the space of two months I’ve made three trips to the northern, cooler half of the U.S., starting with the Philadelphia area; then Providence, Rhode Island; and finally Minneapolis, where the 9th annual Garden Bloggers Fling was held ...
Drinking up beauty in Chanticleer's Teacup Garden
June 30, 2016 Eight years ago, on a family road trip through Pennsylvania, I visited Chanticleer on a lark (I was planning to see Longwood Gardens but changed my mind at the last minute), and my understanding of what a garden could be changed forever. Not merely because the garden ...
Festive spring at Lucinda Hutson’s purple cottage
April 08, 2016 Many times over the years, I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Lucinda Hutson‘s purple cottage in the Rosedale neighborhood of central Austin. It’s always a riot of flowers and festive decor. On Tuesday I stopped by to visit again and am so glad I did. Butter-yellow blossoms ...
Palms and dinosaurs at McKee Botanical Garden
April 06, 2016 Two weeks ago, in mid-March, the family and I drove to Orlando for spring break. Before heading home, we stopped in Vero Beach, Florida, for a day at the shore and to visit McKee Botanical Garden. Yes, those are dinosaurs in the garden. Roar of the Dinosaur, ...
Spring visit to Hill Country Water Gardens & Nursery
March 11, 2016A few days ago I visited my favorite North Austin nursery, Hill Country Water Gardens & Nursery, which is actually located in Cedar Park, just northwest of Austin. As the name implies, HCWG carries pond plants, fish, fountains, pond equipment, and other water-garden supplies. But over the past ...
Spring comes like a flash flood in Texas
March 05, 2016 All at once it’s here: the insistent flush of spring. After Austin’s winter-that-wasn’t, spring arrived early this year thanks to above-average temperatures. SXSW attendees may see the unusual sight of Texas mountain laurels blooming alongside Texas bluebonnets, which are beginning to carpet roadsides blue about a month ...
Drive-By Gardens: Xeriscapes taking off at Mueller neighborhood
January 08, 2016 On New Year’s Day, we took a stroll through Mueller neighborhood, a New Urban community in east-central Austin. Built on the site of the old airport, where acres of runways and parking lots once sprawled, attractive homes and row houses in a mix of different styles (no ...
Dividing and conquering in the Volk Garden: GWA Pasadena
October 23, 2015 A long, shallow back yard sloping away from the house isn’t easy to turn into an inviting garden (I should know), but terracing and space-dividing hedges did the trick in this San Marino, California, garden. Owned by Robert and Caroline Volk and designed by Mark Bartos, this ...
