Evening under the Petals at Blanton Museum
July 07, 2023 I’ve been wanting to see the Petals at Austin’s Blanton Museum of Art ever since the flower-shaped shade structures were officially unveiled in May. For one thing, I’m a big fan of shade in Texas. For another, I love public art. The Petals are a grove of ...
One-of-a-kind design on the 2023 Tribeza Interiors Tour, Part 2
January 26, 2023 I’m so glad Austin’s excellent Tribeza Interiors Tour is back after a 2-year pandemic hiatus. On Sunday’s tour day, I managed to see all 7 of the featured houses, plus squeeze in a picnic lunch courtesy of my touring partner, in the 5 hours allotted to the ...
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, ...
Native plants and Hill Country style at Paula Stone’s Fredericksburg garden
October 25, 2022 Two Fridays ago a couple of friends and I drove out to Fredericksburg, a charming town in the Texas Hill Country, founded in the mid-1800s by German immigrants and built out of native limestone block, pressed-tin ceilings, and galvanized roofs. We’d been invited to visit by Paula ...
Wildflower-palooza at Ruthie Burrus Garden, part 1
April 30, 2022 I first photographed Ruthie Burrus’s garden 8 years ago, when she emailed an invitation to come visit. I was wowed by her wildflower meadow, textural foliage garden at the front door, giant rainwater cisterns, charmingly rustic garden haus, and skyline view. Here’s her garden haus in spring ...
Wildflower Center abloom in early April
April 23, 2022 Claret cup cactus flowering at the top of the Wildflower Center tower I’m overdue for a visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center — and it’s only been two weeks since I was there! But a lot happens in April and May. What was blooming two ...
Autumn meadows and monarchs at Wildflower Center
February 07, 2022 The Center’s iconic lookout tower, which doubles as a water-collecting cistern When Loree of Danger Garden came to Austin last October, we visited the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center on her last day. I was happy she got to see it a second time, particularly since her ...
Modern ranch garden embraces water collection and wildflowers in New Braunfels
May 17, 2021 Last spring Cody and Michelle Koehler finished their garden installation at their home in New Braunfels, Texas. Less than a year later, February’s epic freeze killed most of their large specimen plants, including Weber agaves, olive and palo verde trees, and toothless sotol. Like everyone else in ...
Early spring blooms and Athena the owl at Wildflower Center
March 20, 2021 When they’re offered, I take advantage of late-admission hours to gardens. The light is better for photography in the early evening, and you have a better chance of seeing wildlife. On Thursday our local native-plant botanical garden, the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, stayed open late, and ...
Fall xeriscape garden at Rollingwood City Hall
November 25, 2019 ‘Strawberry Fields’ gomphrena blazes with color amid bold agaves and barrel cactus. While driving through West Austin on the Open Day garden tour earlier this month, I had a sixth-sense feeling that a garden was calling my name. Oh yes, I thought, remember the xeriscape garden at ...
Hilltop getaway at Two Coves Garden: Austin Open Day tour
November 21, 2019 The last garden I visited on the Open Day tour sponsored by The Garden Conservancy was designed by B. Jane Gardens, and which B. has continued to maintain for the last three owners. Located off City Park Road, the Two Coves Drive Garden perches atop a hill ...
Hilltop pollinator garden of Ruthie Burrus: Austin Open Day tour
November 20, 2019 Having visited Ruthie Burrus’s garden before (including at Austin Garden Bloggers Fling), I knew it would be one of my favorites on the Austin Open Days tour in November, sponsored by The Garden Conservancy. Let’s start with the entry garden, where a concrete trough softened by ferns ...
Water-saving Greenway Street Garden: Austin Open Day Tour
November 11, 2019 As Austin gardeners scramble today to get tender plants under cover ahead of an expected hard freeze (seems too early!), let’s continue with coverage of the recent Open Day tour sponsored by The Garden Conservancy. Green House on Greenway, the 2nd garden I visited, reminded me of ...
No Rain? No Problem. Read my interview about waterwise gardening in Garden Gate magazine
August 30, 2019 It’s been a hot, dry summer for a lot of us, and our gardens may be looking pretty parched right about now. I grow a waterwise garden here in Austin, but even so I lost a few plants after the rain spigot cut off in mid-July. There’s ...
A dryland garden inspired by Mother Nature: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
July 15, 2019 After 24 years as a radio talk show host on gardening, Jim Borland may have retired, but his Denver garden continues to broadcast loud and clear about how to garden in semi-arid eastern Colorado (15 inches of annual precipitation) without using any supplemental water. His gardening inspiration? ...
Wildflowers revving up at Wildflower Center
March 19, 2019 Although its name is a bit of a misnomer — the gardens at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center showcase native Texas trees, shrubs, grasses, perennials, succulents, vines, and water plants, not just wildflowers — the Wildflower Center really does shine in early spring when bluebonnets, pink ...
