Waterwise outside, oasis inside a walled Sonoma garden
January 25, 2018 Last August a family road trip took me through Sonoma, California, where I had the pleasure of seeing a garden I was writing about for Garden Design magazine. The owner, Marilyn Coon Stocke, had generously extended an invitation to me and my family, and so we stopped ...
Maple on fire at last
December 19, 2017 Under a soft blanket of fog yesterday, the Japanese maple’s blushing leaves glowed amid the greens of river fern and sedge. Dampened by the fog, its graceful limbs were like dark strokes from a calligrapher’s pen. So after walking the dog, there I was, crouching amid the ...
Fall color and grassy plumes for December Foliage Follow-Up
December 16, 2017 Despite our one-day snow last week, it still looks pretty autumnal in my garden this Foliage Follow-Up. The Japanese maple stubbornly refuses to acknowledge fall until December, when the Christmas lights go up on the house and red balls go up on the agave by the door ...
Spiky garden of Matt Shreves
December 10, 2017 Six months ago I visited the spikylicious garden of Matt Shreves, an Austin gardener I met on Instagram (see his Instagram page at OG_Agave). Last month, he kindly invited the Austin blogger group over (or maybe we invited ourselves over, and he graciously agreed), so I got ...
Sedgey front garden and xeriscape terrace
December 06, 2017 For one West Austin homeowner, this is the view from her front door: an undulating, rhythmic front walk of poured-concrete pavers wending through a meadowy swath of Berkeley sedge, soap aloes, and purple heart, with a scrim of yaupon hollies shielding the view of the street. A ...
Sharing nature’s beauty in the garden of Diana Kirby
December 03, 2017 I’ve enjoyed many a visit at the garden of my good friend Diana Kirby, designer at Diana’s Designs, garden columnist at the Austin American-Statesman, and publisher of the blog Sharing Nature’s Garden. But inexplicably I’ve never done a photo tour of her lovely garden, and I’m remedying ...
New roof and Sway Your HOA article in Wildflower magazine
November 28, 2017 Exciting developments around here. For one, we had our old, hail-beaten roof replaced, and not only does the new roof completely freshen up our home, but the workers took great care not to damage the garden in the process. If you’re in the Austin area and need ...
Canyon-side garden of Tait Moring: Austin Open Days Tour 2017
November 25, 2017 The final garden from the Austin Open Days Tour earlier this month is landscape architect Tait Moring‘s personal garden, which perches on a canyon’s rim just off Bee Caves Road. His entry garden is an appealing mix of formality (boxwood hedging, geometric raised pond, fig ivy neatly ...
Water-saving Ridgewood Road Garden: Austin Open Days Tour 2017
November 22, 2017 The talented Annie Gillespie of Botanical Concerns designed the water-saving garden at Ridgewood Road, the next garden in my recap of Austin’s recent Open Days Tour. From the street you’re invited to stroll through a low-water garden of oaks, grasses, agave, and yucca to reach the house ...
Waterwise drama in Lakemoore Drive Garden: Austin Open Days Tour 2017
November 20, 2017 Continuing my coverage of the November 4th Open Days tour, today I give you the Lakemoore Drive Garden. Regular readers may recognize this garden as one I blogged about, rapturously, in 2013. The outer garden, a sun-loving gravel garden with evergreen xeric plants like agave, yucca, prickly ...
Easy outdoor living in garden of designer B. Jane: Austin Open Days Tour 2017
November 15, 2017 For a refreshing contemporary design with fun colors and a restrained palette of tough-as-nails native plants, designer B. Jane‘s garden is the place to hang out. Her personal garden in Austin’s Brentwood neighborhood was featured on the Garden Conservancy-sponsored Open Days tour a couple of weeks ago ...
Garden rooms and green roof at Cloverleaf Drive Garden: Austin Open Days Tour 2017
November 13, 2017 This year’s Garden Conservancy-sponsored Open Days tour in Austin featured gardens in a variety of styles and a variety of neighborhoods (not just West Austin). I especially enjoyed exploring the Cloverleaf Drive garden, which, along with Jackson Broussard’s, is located east of I-35 in a “regular-folks” neighborhood ...
Garden of Jackson Broussard: Austin Open Days Tour 2017
November 10, 2017 For landscape architect Jackson Broussard, you really can go home again. He was raised in this modest ranch house in east-central Austin, and after he took ownership he freshened up the house and leased it out and built himself a detached, two-story addition in the back yard ...
Chihuly in the Forest and American art at Crystal Bridges Museum
November 05, 2017 While in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, last weekend, my husband and I drove to nearby Bentonville to see the remarkable collection of American art at Crystal Bridges Museum. The museum is surrounded by pleasant walking trails, and an exhibit of Chihuly glass sculptures, Chihuly in the Forest, was ...
Leaf-peeping, zombies, and Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs, Arkansas
November 03, 2017 Last Friday my husband and I drove up to northern Arkansas for an extended weekend just before Halloween, hoping to see colorful fall foliage while making a first-time visit to Eureka Springs. I didn’t know what to expect from Eureka Springs aside from hilly terrain, natural springs, ...
Festive color and a little Dia de los Muertos in Lucinda Hutson’s garden
October 30, 2017 A visit to Lucinda Hutson‘s home and garden always feels like being at a party. Brightly colored walls and accessories, garden rooms with playful themes (like the mermaid garden pictured here), and Lucinda’s own excitement at showing you what’s flowering or fruiting create a feeling of festivity ...
