Athena the great horned owl nesting again at the Wildflower Center
April 28, 2025 A great horned owl has been nesting at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for 15 years, laying usually two eggs each spring in a planter niche high on a wall, sheltered by a spiny Wheeler’s sotol. See her up there on the right, under the blue-green ...
Cottage garden charm in Tom’s Tarrytown garden, Part 1
April 25, 2025 Spring is when I get invited — or invite myself — into gardens all around Austin. It’s a rush to see as many as I can before summer and the Death Star arrive. Right now though, it’s sweetness and light! Especially in the charming cottage garden of ...
Cactus flowers, lizards, and another owl sighting
April 23, 2025 It may be peanuts, but that’s a good thing when it comes to peanut cactus. My peanut (Echinopsis chamaecereus) erupted with starry orange flowers last week, and they’re still going strong. They are eye-poppingly orange-red, like molten lava. Cacti have such stunning flowers. This one was a ...
Wildflowers, donkeys, and old-sign magic at Katie Bird Farm
April 22, 2025 Last week I invited myself to Kay Angermann and Julie Nelson’s utterly charming Katie Bird Farm, their home garden on 3 acres in southwest Austin. I love everything about their country garden, starting with this eye-catching vignette along the driveway: an upturned stock tank displaying a succulent ...
Screech owl nesting in new owl box
April 15, 2025 We’ve been sadly without a screech owl family for several years after losing our owl-box tree and having to move the box. We actually have two owl boxes now — one in the front yard and one in the back. Since January (when nesting season begins) I’ve ...
Wildflower safari east to Independence
April 13, 2025 The wildflower reporters I follow — and my own eyes — say this is a poor year for Texas bluebonnets and other spring wildflowers, especially from Austin west into the Hill Country. Our ongoing drought kept seedlings from germinating last fall, and there hasn’t been much rain ...
Spring flowers and fab foliage a-popping
March 16, 2025 Late last week, while I was under the weather and holed up on the couch watching Wicked, winter turned into spring. Yesterday I woke up feeling like myself again and noticed a text from my neighbor, thanking me for the beauty of my Mexican plum, which stretches ...
Lori’s blue fantasia garden
January 04, 2025 I popped over to my friend Lori Daul‘s house on Thursday, craving one more garden visit before the Arctic barrels down to Austin and brings our long growing season to an end. At Lori’s, fountains still trickle, ponds reflect sky, and plants sprawl luxuriantly. The garden echoes ...
Exploring the Gardens on Spring Creek in fall
December 01, 2024 I always look for gardens to visit when I travel, and our fall trip up to Denver included quite a few. Happily I was able to squeeze in another during a day trip to Fort Collins, where we spent a couple hours at The Gardens on Spring ...
Thankful for fall flowers, cool temps, not deer
November 27, 2024 Fall was slow to arrive this year. Autumn rainfall has been tardy too, just a smattering here and there. But there’s plenty to be thankful for in the garden, as always. I’m grateful for cooler, yet frost-free temps and the fullness of the autumn garden. Hooray for ...
Checking out the new Academic Quad at Rice
November 05, 2024 This Owl flew back to Rice University in Houston last weekend for Homecoming. Under rain-threatening skies, I walked around the beautiful campus to see what was new. I always admire this sleek barn owl sculpted by Geoffrey Dashwood, which sits behind the Rice Chapel. But what I ...
Screech owl still hanging around
October 16, 2024 The screech owl is still hanging out in the owl box each day, dozing in the doorway each morning or alert but relaxed each evening. It seems comfortable with me walking around below, staying put when I move trash bins or get the mail. I enjoy watching ...
A screech owl in the new box
October 11, 2024 A screech owl has been hanging out in the new owl box for a couple of weeks. Our daughter told us about it while we were gone, and I’ve been on the lookout since coming home. Yesterday I finally saw it. I was rumbling the trash and ...
More exuberance at the Sparler-Schouten Garden, part 2
September 01, 2024 There was too much garden goodness and exuberance to contain in one post about Daniel Sparler and Jeff Schouten’s Garden of Exuberant Refuge, which I visited on the Puget Sound Fling. Here’s Part 1, if you missed it. Today, Part 2 starts on the back patio of ...
A woodland art collector’s garden on Vashon Island
August 02, 2024 While touring the Carhart Garden at the Puget Sound Fling last month, I met one of the owners, Mary Carhart, who upon learning I was from Texas enthusiastically told me that she is from Texas too. Decades ago, she and husband Whit moved to Washington for work ...
Michael’s Plano Prairie Garden in spring
June 03, 2024 I’ve visited Michael McDowell’s garden — aka the Plano Prairie Garden — several times over the past decade (see here and here; it’ll also be featured in my forthcoming book). My visits have always been in the fall, when purple spires of gayfeather turn Michael’s prairie garden ...
