1st garden–2006

November 01, 2006Part of the coral honeysuckle vine on my front fence died this summer and has been looking brown and spindly, even reproachful, ever since. Last weekend I spent a couple of hours clipping the dead vines and untwisting them from the wire fence. I don’t know why this ...

October 30, 2006 Please, sir, may I have some more? On Sunday evening we attended Goblins in the Garden, an annual Halloween event at the Wildflower Center. The city’s little haunters were out in force, and it was fun to see the volunteers running the event dressed in the spirit ...

October 28, 2006 Colorful, xeric perennials contrasted beautifully with an Italian cypress allee. My last garden of the day, Stone House Vineyard required the biggest time commitment. At about 2 pm I took the 40-minute drive out to Spicewood, on Lake Travis. Compared to the crowded, in-town gardens, only a ...

October 27, 2006 Low, curving walls set the front garden apart, with a spiraling design that draws you in. Colorful perennials and informal designs had been scarce on the Open Days Austin tour up until this point. Green, formal gardens ruled the day with clipped boxwoods, allees, precise runnels, and ...

October 26, 2006 A pear allee is the highlight of Hornickel’s garden Warm, accessible, personal, with striking plant choices and a Gardens-inspired feel, this Bryker Woods garden, located within walking distance of James David and Gary Peese’s famous garden shop, is Gardens on a budget. And I mean that as ...

October 25, 2006 A belvedere “modeled after the music pavilion at Versailles,” according to the Open Days Directory. We garden tourists knew this would be the most opulent garden on the Open Days Austin tour. A feature in the newspaper that tantalized with lavish photos, and mentioned that the garden ...

October 24, 2006 Entering James Arth’s garden from the street, you step onto a small lawn punctuated by a “chess pawn” (similar to one in my own garden’s border). Visiting this central Austin garden right after the David-Peese garden was a big change, but its spare geometry rendered in limestone ...

October 23, 2006 Entry garden. A gravel path flows around this sunny, graveled berm. It literally stopped me in my tracks as I gazed at the intriguing plant combinations. “Does this make me look fat?” I heard Gary Peese ask someone, fussing with his shirt as the Open Days tour ...

October 22, 2006 The Garden Conservancy held its Open Days garden tour here in Austin yesterday. I spent six hours touring six gardens and had a terrific time. The gardens were gorgeous, inspiring, and yet, with one exception, accessible, meaning you felt you could borrow ideas for plant combinations, decor, ...

October 19, 2006 My new reel mower for the lawnette Remember these? Nah, I don’t either. My dad always used a gasoline-powered mower, and so did I until I got rid of all my grass about three years ago. But having just reintroduced a tiny lawn—it’s so small that I ...

October 19, 2006 My new reel mower for the lawnette Remember these? Nah, I don’t either. My dad always used a gasoline-powered mower, and so did I until I got rid of all my grass about three years ago. But having just reintroduced a tiny lawn—it’s so small that I ...

October 17, 2006 Whale’s tongue agave ‘Tis but thy spines that are my enemy. My apologies to Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet), but I really am reminded of a rose when I look at this agave. It’s a gorgeous, blue rose . . . with teeth. This is a fairly new ...

October 14, 2006 ‘Helvola’ water lily, hanging on into fall Lately I’ve been visiting Counting Petals and viewing Lene’s beautiful photographs of Vermont’s changing fall colors with longing. Her “graveyard walk” bring to mind memories of autumn strolls through venerable Oakwood Cemetery in Raleigh, and the lovely foliage in her ...

October 11, 2006 The Harvest Moon rose orange over the treetops last Friday. What a beautiful October moon! (Photo by June Tarr) To continue our full-moon appreciation, on Sunday evening we attended Zilker Garden’s Japanese Moon Festival. As dusk fell, we strolled through the Japanese garden, down to the moon ...

October 05, 2006 Lawn-free and loving it . . . at least, I used to be. I was at Lowe’s a few days ago buying bags of mulch when the loader guy says to me, “Getting in some late-season gardening, huh?” Late-season? This is primetime for Austin, which the Lowe’s ...

October 04, 2006 Purple heart and mistflower (Eupatorium coelestinum) I have a theory that the better your garden looks, the worse you look while working in it. Or perhaps it’s the other way around. Or maybe it’s just me. God knows I’m no Bree Van de Camp when I’m gardening ...