Summer pleasures: Barton Springs Pool and Lockhart art
September 07, 2023 I had reservations for a dip at Blue Hole swimming hole in Wimberley, Texas, just before Labor Day. But the drought has left little untouched in Texas this summer, and I soon received a cancellation notice. Blue Hole has closed for the rest of the season due ...
Hot summer survivors and new book news
August 21, 2023 This summer, y’all. Am I right, my fellow Texas gardeners? But even with two months of surface-of-the-sun temps and zero rain, at least a few plants are happy. Like this pink-flowering mammillaria cactus that burst into silken bloom a few days after I gave it a deep ...
Old San Antonio style in Melody’s garden
June 12, 2023 While in San Antonio two weeks ago, I met up with my friend Melody, who invited me to see her garden again. I first visited 9 years ago — whaaaat? where does the time go? — and was eager to see it again. In her large flower ...
Color-saturated homes on 2023 Tribeza Interiors Tour, Part 1
January 25, 2023 A pink front door and chromatic rug make a cheerful entry at Genie Norris’s house The quiet season for gardening makes the perfect season to focus on interiors — and to attend Austin’s annual Tribeza Interiors Tour. After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the tour resumed last Sunday, ...
Hotel Magdalena courtyard evokes Hill Country canyon
October 06, 2022 After an all-day meeting on South Congress recently, I strolled down Music Lane to Hotel Magdalena, a boutique hotel that opened in 2020. I’d been wanting to see the place since learning that Ten Eyck Landscape Architects did the landscaping and Lake|Flato Architects designed the hotel itself ...
Heart of stone: Tait Moring’s garden
May 18, 2022 Amid the flurry of gardens I had the pleasure of visiting in late April, landscape architect Tait Moring‘s garden stands out, as always, for its evocative stonework and a magpie collection of found objects, boyhood collections, and castoffs from clients’ gardens, which Tait assembles into art for ...
Gathering spaces in Ruthie Burrus Garden, part 2
May 02, 2022 In my last post I hope I wowed you — as I was wowed — by the colorful wildflower meadow and textural spiky-soft shade garden of Ruthie Burrus. If you missed it, check out Part 1 of my visit to Ruthie’s West Austin garden. Today we’ll explore ...
Flowery meadow instead of lawn at Chanticleer’s house garden
February 26, 2022 You’d expect a garden surrounding an estate house to be formal, restrained, with neat lawns and containers that serve to frame the grand structure. The house garden at Chanticleer, a Pennsylvania “pleasure garden” I visited during my East Coast road trip last October, upends this convention through ...
The yellow glow of late fall
December 02, 2021 Cool, blue-sky weather has me spending more time in the garden, having friends over, and tinkering with planting beds. It’s kind of glowing out there. Why? Yellow is the color of fall in my garden, starting with the wonderful forsythia sage (Salvia madrensis), which lights up the ...
Cooling off at Wimberley’s Blue Hole
August 27, 2021 Austin is blessed with an abundance of spring-fed swimming holes, including crown jewel Barton Springs Pool. But just an hour away, the small town of Wimberley, Texas, has two spectacular natural swimming holes of its own: Jacob’s Well (which I saw earlier this summer) and Blue Hole, ...
The mysterious allure of Jacob’s Well
July 31, 2021 For years I’ve heard about Jacob’s Well, a cylindrical underwater cavern filled over its brim with chilly (68 F) artesian spring water. Extending beyond the 30-foot-deep well, the cavern’s chambers reach a depth of 137 feet, with narrow passages and silty floors that can cloud the water ...
Abundance tiled artwork near Deep Eddy Pool welcomes visitors
July 22, 2021 Finding a new piece of public art always brightens my day, and Austin adds more and more artworks to its public spaces all the time. This tiled arch gateway to newly renovated Eiler’s Park, next to Deep Eddy Pool, went up in 2020. Created by Ryah Christensen ...
Swimming at Barton Springs Pool, the ultimate summer cool-down
July 16, 2021 You wouldn’t think I’d have a hard time finding someone to go swimming with me in July in Texas. But when I proposed an excursion to Barton Springs Pool recently, most of my family and friends said no way. Why? After all, Barton Springs Pool is considered ...
Wildflowers, water features, and flying pigs add charm to no-lawn garden in Cedar Park
June 10, 2021 Whenever I see a no-lawn, front-yard garden in suburbia, I know a daring and enthusiastic gardener lives there. Such is the case with Cedar Park homeowner Frances Fortanely, whose garden I had the pleasure of seeing last week. Pulling up to the curb, I was greeted by ...
Heart eyes for heartleaf skullcap and more
May 26, 2021 A blue haze has settled over the driveway-island bed, the silvery blue flowers of heartleaf skullcap (Scutellaria ovata). I find myself stopping to admire them every time I step outside. It fills in nicely around a ‘Vanzie’ whale’s tongue agave (Agave ovatifolia), ‘Vertigo’ pennisetum grass, Mexican oregano ...
Still cleaning up after the freeze but making progress
March 16, 2021 In the 3 weeks since the Big Freeze, there’s been much gnashing of teeth and grim side-eye given to the cold-toasted garden. There’s been escape. But mostly there’s been a slow acceptance of the changed garden and daily efforts at cutting it all back, removing plants that ...
