Dynasty Drive flowers and bonus hosta garden: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
July 27, 2016 A garden tour within a garden tour was offered on day two of the Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling, held in mid-July. Bused to a half-dozen lovely private gardens on a local Master Gardeners tour (see my upcoming post about the Walden Road garden), at one point I ...
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 ...
Touring Linden Hill Gardens with Nan Ondra
July 20, 2016 I’ve been reading author and plantswoman Nancy Ondra’s blog, Hayefield, for nearly a decade. Although we’d never met, we’ve been friendly online. After all, she donated one of her books as a door prize for the first Garden Bloggers Fling in Austin in 2008, I’ve written about ...
Twilight in Minder Woods at Chanticleer Garden
July 15, 2016 At the end of our opening-to-closing day at Chanticleer in early June, Diana and I packed up the wrappings of our picnic dinner (the garden stays open until 8 pm on summer Fridays) and wandered around taking last-minute photos. I meandered through Minder Woods, a small woodland ...
Chanticleer’s Flower and Vegetable Garden and magical Bell’s Woodland
July 12, 2016 During our full day at Chanticleer Garden in the Philadelphia area last month, Diana and I left for lunch around 1:30 pm and returned two hours later with full bellies plus a picnic dinner stashed in our bags. On Friday nights in the summer, the garden stays ...
Leaves of sunshine and moonlight in Chanticleer's Tennis Court Garden
July 11, 2016 The Tennis Court Garden at Philly-area Chanticleer (which I visited in early June with my friend Diana) sits a dozen feet below the main path, so you enjoy an overlook before entering. Back when Chanticleer was a private estate property, this space held a tennis court. Today ...
Flowers and rich foliage at Chanticleer's Pond Garden
July 07, 2016 Is any garden feature more alluring to people than a body of water? I think not. As Diana and I emerged from Chanticleer‘s shady, green Asian Woods during our early June visit, the sunlit and flowery Pond Garden greeted us (the pond was hidden from view at ...
Up on Chanticleer's elevated walkway and Asian Woods Garden
July 04, 2016 From the formal House Garden at Chanticleer, the garden path steps off into space — or rather, onto the new elevated walkway that provides an accessible, curving descent down a sloping meadow of foxtail lilies, feathergrass, bee balm, coneflowers, and other sun lovers. I visited Chanticleer, a ...
Hot flower border, meadowy lawn at Chanticleer's House Garden
July 01, 2016 The sun was high when Diana and I exited the Teacup Garden and began to explore Chanticleer‘s House Garden, which unfolds with a view across a tidy croquet lawn. No sign of croquet today — just one cute-as-a-button little girl. The house itself — the summer home ...
Enchanted Woods children’s garden at Winterthur: Not your typical playground
June 18, 2016 Forget wooden playscapes, jungle gyms, and climbing walls. The most magical children’s gardens consist of natural spaces that invite exploration, slowly reveal secret spaces, and encourage imaginative play. Such is Enchanted Woods, the children’s garden at Winterthur, located in Winterthur, Delaware, which I visited with Diana/Sharing Nature’s ...
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 ...
Drive-By Gardens: Contemporary curb appeal in Shoalwood
May 17, 2016 Last week, while cruising around north-central Austin’s Shoalwood and south Allandale neighborhoods, I noticed a trend: contemporary curb appeal with gravel and concrete-paver paths, low walls and fences to separate public and private areas, and turf reduction in favor of lower-water plants. Take this 1950s ranch, for ...
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 ...
Bluebonnets already a-blue-m at the Wildflower Center
February 06, 2016 Well, this is a surprise! Bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) ordinarily bloom in April, but a bonny patch was abloom yesterday in the family garden at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Don’t go running over for your photo op with the kids. Only about 3 plants are blooming ...
Smart, water-saving landscaping at UT’s Dealey Center
December 08, 2015 On a chilly, rainy Saturday in mid-November — a quiet traffic day — I headed to the University of Texas campus and actually found street parking at the G. B. Dealey Center for New Media (renamed from the Belo Center in 2021), whose landscaping I’ve wanted to ...
Twilight Epiphany Skyspace at Rice University, a de-light-ful work of art
November 12, 2015 For my fellow Owls who’ll be at Homecoming this weekend, and for anyone else visiting the art mecca of Houston, if you don’t already know about James Turrell’s Twilight Epiphany Skyspace at Rice University, you should. When you’re on campus, you can’t miss the pyramidal structure capped ...
