Bluebonnets in the neighborhood
April 04, 2024 While on a neighborhood stroll last week, I spotted a bodacious bevy of bluebonnets at a Bevo-loving neighbor’s house. Ka-pow! A few pink bluebonnets mingled with the standard blues. A glorious sight — thanks, neighbor! I welcome your comments. Please scroll to the end of this post ...
Spring in full swing in my garden
April 03, 2024 What a great time of year this is in a Central Texas garden. The days have been comfortable but not hot. The humidity is low. We’ve had a little rain but also plenty of sun. And the plants are racing with new growth and flowers. They’re feeling ...
Willow City Loop wows with Texas wildflowers
March 29, 2024 I headed west to the Hill Country on Wednesday on a THIRD wildflower safari, cruising the Willow City Loop between Fredericksburg and Llano. This famously scenic, 13-mile ranch road winds through rugged canyons and over rocky hilltops offering spectacular views, with low-water crossings and free-range cattle to ...
More Texas wildflower joy near Independence
March 26, 2024 Bluebonnets are popping off in Texas this spring, so much so that I made time for a second wildflower safari last Friday, heading east through farm country toward Independence. I shared Part 1 of that drive yesterday. Today, here’s Part 2. The rolling fields, farms, and ranches ...
Wildflowers and miniature donkeys near Independence
March 25, 2024 A couple weeks ago, I went on wildflower safari south of Austin, east of San Antonio, and saw some good flower fields. But this above-average wildflower year called for a second safari. On Friday, my husband and I hit the back roads east of Austin, near tiny ...
Crossvine, plum, and spiderwort at peak bloom
March 10, 2024 What’s making me happiest in my garden right now? Let me show you! My favorite plant this week is ‘Tangerine Beauty’ crossvine. Look at those crinkled, open-throated, mango-hued blossoms, singing spring for all they’re worth. A single vine has crept along the coyote fence at the back ...
Texas flowering trees for bees
March 05, 2024 The sweet, grapey fragrance of Kool-Aid wafts on the breeze at this time of year in Texas. Purple flower clusters that put wisteria to shame dangle from Texas mountain laurel (Sophora secundiflora) trees. Bees go mad for these purple pom-poms, and so do I. Every time I ...
Earliest spring flowers are popping
February 27, 2024 Spring has arrived in earnest in Austin, and it feels about two weeks early. Is that right, long-time Austinites? Temps have been in the mid- to upper 80s F for the past several days, and although that’s warm, it’s still very comfortable in the shade. In response ...
Winter beauty at the Wildflower Center
January 30, 2024 It’s possumhaw berry season in Austin. The crimson berries of this deciduous native holly (Ilex decidua) are blazing at the edge of woodlands and in sunny gardens all over town, including at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. This one in particular wowed me last Saturday. I ...
Jay’s front-yard garden of native plants in Dallas
November 13, 2023 A few weeks ago in Dallas, I met up with Jay of NewTexasGardens at his home garden. It was great to meet a fellow Instagrammer whose photos I admire and who posts interesting content, like measuring the temperature of artificial turf on a hot summer day and ...
Christy Ten Eyck-led tour of San Antonio garden
October 16, 2023 On Saturday I headed down San Antonio way for a Garden Dialogues event led by Christy Ten Eyck, principal of Ten Eyck Landscape Architects in Austin, at a private garden she designed in San Antonio’s Hill Country Village. Christy has long been an inspiration for her design ...
Native plants at Chihuahuan Desert Botanical Garden in West Texas
August 22, 2023 Cow’s tongue prickly pear and Mitre Peak While visiting far West Texas last month, a few people mentioned the Chihuahuan Desert Nature Center and its botanical garden, located just outside of Fort Davis. So one morning my friend and I drove over from Marfa to check it ...
Michael Eason’s desert garden retreat
August 14, 2023 While in West Texas a couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting designer and author Michael Eason‘s garden in Alpine. Michael had lined up some wonderful gardens for me to visit there, ones that he’d designed, but it was nice to see his own personal ...
Summer garden moments
June 26, 2023 Texas summers always test me as a gardener. I dislike the heat and humidity and generally view summer as a holing-up season, a downtime to wait out, the way gardeners up north view winter. Except of course the weeds don’t stop growing during my downtime. But this ...
Kinder Land Bridge restores coastal prairie and unites Houston’s Memorial Park
May 04, 2023 Kinder Land Bridge as seen from Memorial Drive Houston’s Memorial Park, a 1,500-acre urban green space, has for years been sliced and diced by busy roadways, keeping people and wildlife from safe access to all parts of the park. Compounding this design flaw, the heavily wooded park ...
Last of the bluebonnets in Ruthie’s garden
April 14, 2023 Whenever there’s a chance to show more bluebonnets, before they’re gone, show more bluebonnets. I spotted these in Ruthie Burrus’s garden last week. Her spring garden is always a vision, but the last of the bluebonnets, mingling here with pink evening primrose, are what I’m thinking of ...
