Checking out Chickadee Gardens: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling
August 03, 2014 The Garden Bloggers Fling takes you to so many wonderful gardens that it would be understandable if you simply overloaded by the end of the day, unable to appreciate one more. Thankfully I find new gardens energizing, and when our bus pulled up at Portland blogger Tamara’s ...
JJ De Sousa’s bold garden digs: Portland Garden Bloggers Fling
July 31, 2014 What’s black and white and red-orange all over? The stylishly mod yet playful garden of JJ De Sousa, that’s what. Owner of Digs Inside & Out home-and-garden shop, which I visited pre-Fling, JJ has an enviable talent for creating inviting, colorful garden rooms, perfect for entertaining, which ...
Visit to Digs Inside & Out garden shop in Portland
July 18, 2014 When I heard that JJ De Sousa’s garden was on the itinerary for the Portland Garden Bloggers Fling, I excitedly planned a double-dose of her colorful, creative, offbeat style by arranging to visit her home-and-garden shop Digs Inside & Out. Located on trendy Alberta Street (where my ...
Visit to Desert Botanical Garden and Chihuly Exhibit: Desert twilight and Chihuly after dark
May 01, 2014 Have you ever visited a garden twice in one day? After a late morning/mid-afternoon stroll through Phoenix’s Desert Botanical Garden on April 4th, I returned just before sunset to enjoy the “magic hour” of light and see the Chihuly glass sculptures dramatically lit. The low, warm light ...
Color-drenched walls and desert beauty in Steve Martino-designed Palo Christi Garden
April 19, 2014 Forget Easter egg pinks and lilacs. Yellow, I discovered two weeks ago, is the color of spring in Arizona. A sunny, egg-yolk yellow. My friend David Cristiani introduced me to Phoenix landscape architect Steve Martino, who pioneered the use of desert natives in area gardens decades ago ...
Party lights patio
January 20, 2014 Evening temperature: mid-60sF. I need to sit out here more often, before the mosquitoes return. Update: If you’re interested in what kind of string lights we have and how we installed them, I wrote this post about lighting the garden a few years ago. All material © ...
Spectacular lighted trees bring holiday joy in Johnson City
December 22, 2013 We tooled into Johnson City at dusk after a day spent in charming Fredericksburg, in the Hill Country west of Austin. After dinner at a local brew pub, we stopped by the electric company, just a block off the main road, to view the lighted trees that ...
Cocktail party at Shirley Watts’ Garden: San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling
July 12, 2013 Early arrivals to San Francisco for the recent Garden Bloggers Fling were invited to a cocktail party at designer and artist Shirley Watts‘ home in Alameda. Shirley graciously opened her home and garden to about 50 complete strangers, and we eagerly trooped through her kitchen and into ...
Johnson City trees light up the night at Christmastime
December 24, 2012 I’ve driven west through Johnson City, about 45 miles from Austin in the Texas Hill Country, many times on the way to Fredericksburg and parts further west. But not until last night had I strolled around the town that’s best known as the home of President Lyndon ...
Updating the old homestead and lawn-removal “after” pics
November 28, 2012 Giving our aging ranch house a facelift has been an ongoing project since we moved in four years ago. The house is comfortably proportioned and liveable on the inside, but the exterior is, well, homely, so we gave it a brow-lift earlier this year with a gabled ...
Austin Open Days Tour 2012: Garden of Yvonne Tocquigny
November 05, 2012 My second stop on Saturday’s Garden Conservancy’s Open Days tour was the courtyard garden of Yvonne Tocquigny and Tom Fornoff, located in West Austin’s tony Tarrytown neighborhood. Elegant but relaxed and beautifully designed, this garden has a secret-garden aspect, with green walls erected in front and in ...
Austin Open Days Tour 2012: Garden of Jennifer and Fred Myers
November 04, 2012 On Saturday I joined several garden-blogging friends for the biennial Open Days tour, sponsored by the Garden Conservancy. I consider Open Days to be the best garden tour in Austin. You often see high-design gardens mingled with a gardener’s sensibility and creative, personal touches. This year’s Open ...
An evening visit to Scott Calhoun’s Zona Gardens studio
October 31, 2012 I don’t remember how I acquired Yard Full of Sun, Scott Calhoun’s 2005 memoir about making a garden that honors its desert setting. As soon as I read the first pages, his story, told with humor, crisp writing, and enticing photos, hooked me. Since then I’ve read ...
New front walk and porch gable updates our house
June 28, 2012 After 3-1/2 years of dreaming and planning and 3 months of sporadic construction, the front of my house has a fresh, more contemporary look thanks to a small but detailed remodeling project—adding a gable roof to the front porch—and new landscaping. I’m delighted with the new look, ...
Lee Clippard’s naturalistic garden with a modern edge
April 29, 2012 I recently visited the East Austin garden belonging to blogger Lee Clippard of The Grackle and Martha Stewart Living fame to get a few pictures for my upcoming book, Lawn Gone!. As you can see, Lee’s lawn is indeed long gone, replaced by a dappled-shade garden of ...
Funky Austin Christmas lights at 37th Street
December 22, 2011 Would it be Christmas in Austin without a spin under the Zilker Tree and a stroll down 37th Street? We intended to do both last night, but a welcome rain shower allowed only 37th Street. No matter—the Zilker Tree is lit until New Year’s Eve, and a ...
