At last, some fall color! Thanks, Japanese maple
December 13, 2016 Just a couple of weeks ago I wrote that fall color is a dud this year in Austin. That’s still true, but as if in defiance of that observation, the Japanese maple (Acer palmatum) at the front corner of our house is flaming orange and red in ...
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 ...
Visit to Quinta Mazatlan, birding, and Planta Nativa Festival
October 27, 2016 Texas is a big state, and living in the center of it means that whichever direction you travel, it’s a long drive to the state line. Last weekend, that meant a 5-hour drive to the Rio Grande Valley, where Texas shares a border with Mexico. My destination? ...
Evolution of a side garden with trash-bin screening
September 25, 2016 I like to show in-process pictures — not that garden making is ever about finishing a space — so here’s an update on a little-talked-about part of my garden: the front side-garden path, which leads from the circular driveway (out of view, upper right) to the gated ...
Adobe walls, secret gardens, history & art in Santa Fe
August 24, 2016 Our western road trip earlier this month took us through Santa Fe, New Mexico, one of the oldest cities in the U.S. and the oldest capital city in the country (dating to 1607). The compact historic district is a walkable several blocks of terracotta-colored adobe and adobe-style ...
Hot child in the city: August Foliage Follow-Up
August 16, 2016 Surely August will be our last worst month here in central Texas. It can’t possibly remain blisteringly hot and humid through September, can it? Yes, it can, and it probably will, but that’s why I love agaves, yuccas, prickly pear, and other tough plants. They breeze through ...
Elegant garden of St. Paul writer Marge Hols: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
July 29, 2016 A lovely Tudor-style home on St. Paul’s historic Summit Avenue, just down the block from the Minnesota Governor’s Mansion, was a stop on day three of the Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling. It’s the home of gardening columnist Marge Hols, who welcomed us and immediately set us loose ...
Como Park Conservatory and Japanese Garden: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
July 28, 2016 In the South we don’t have many conservatories, probably because our winters aren’t particularly bleak or cold. But I’ve visited a few on my travels to northern states, and on day three of the Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling, I got to see another one at Como Park ...
Minnesota Landscape Arboretum: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
July 25, 2016 Our Minneapolis Fling banquet dinner — an opportunity to dine with blogging friends, win amazing giveaway prizes from sponsors, and listen to entertaining anecdotes and announcements from organizers — was held at the end of the second day, at the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. Time was short before ...
Visiting Layanee’s ledge and garden in Rhode Island
July 21, 2016 Wherever I travel these days, I seem to know a garden blogger who lives there. That’s partly because I’ve been blogging and reading blogs for a decade and partly because I’ve gotten to know lots of bloggers in person through years of attending the annual Garden Bloggers ...
Those who play in glass houses: Conservatory and Indoor Children's Garden at Longwood Gardens
June 26, 2016 Maybe Southerners don’t need conservatories because our winters are pretty green. Growing up in the South, I don’t recall ever visiting a conservatory until I started garden traveling to northern states. (We don’t have a culture of spring garden shows either, perhaps for the same reason.) Call ...
Dogwood enchantment and a wild windstorm at Winterthur Gardens
June 16, 2016 The Brandywine Valley of Pennsylvania has been calling my name since 2008, when I passed through during a family road trip and fell in love with the rolling, wooded countryside, its charming villages and Revolutionary War history, and numerous estate gardens that make it a garden traveler’s ...
Foliage in full spring swing: May Foliage Follow-Up
May 16, 2016 The day after Bloom Day is Foliage Follow-Up, a day to give foliage plants their due. This month I’m leading with the fresh spring greens of ornamental grasses, like shade-loving inland sea oats (Chasmanthium latifolium). Their “oats” are just forming, and by mid-summer will turn from apple ...
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 ...
Dreamy blues and a few surprises in the garden of Lori Daul
March 29, 2016 When a gardener urges you to come over to see something in bloom, you know you better say yes. Lori Daul of The Gardener of Good and Evil tempted me into a quick visit last Saturday — not with an apple but with “the last of the ...
Winter pizzazz of flowering maple and ornamental grasses
January 11, 2016 A mild winter makes flowering maple (Abutilon) happy, and that makes me happy. I adore its pink-veined, balloon-skirted flowers. Here you see it in the foreground, part of the stock-tank pond garden. Let’s walk up the hillside path, shall we? But first, check out how big the ...
