Fall at Denver Botanic Gardens: Perennials, conifers, and Rock Alpine Garden
January 09, 2025 After exploring the Birds and Bees Walk at Denver Botanic Gardens, I found bees hard at work among fall-flowering asters and other perennials. This is Part 4 from my visit to DBG in late September. The asters were lit up in the strong morning sunlight. The bees ...
Fall at Denver Botanic Gardens: PlantAsia and Birds and Bees Walk
January 08, 2025 Pines with fragrant needles and cool shade welcome you into June’s PlantAsia garden (who’s June, I wonder?) at Denver Botanic Gardens. This is Part 3 of my tour from my visit in late September. June’s PlantAsia A Chinese pavilion offers a cool spot to rest under the ...
Fall at Denver Botanic Gardens: Steppe Garden, ornamental grasses, and woodland garden
January 07, 2025 The Steppe Garden at Denver Botanic Gardens delights with three large crevice planters on a stone plaza. They’re intricately constructed. The central one reminds me of a loaf of bread or those old-fashioned wooden puzzles that fit together in a certain way. Or maybe a wheel of ...
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 ...
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 ...
A collector’s garden of rare palms and cactus
November 21, 2024 Amber and Jason Schoneman, owners of garden design biz Dwarf Palmetto Design, nurture a fascination with palms, cactus, and other low-water plants. Avid collectors, they know the provenance of every plant in their garden. They also propagate plants for their private plant sales. In short, they are ...
Fall garden stroll at the Wildflower Center
November 18, 2024 Being able to visit a garden at the golden hour — just after sunrise or before sunset, when the light is soft and warm — is a garden photographer’s fervent wish. So I am grateful when a botanical garden offers early or late visiting hours. Austin’s Lady ...
Cynthia’s home and garden with heart
November 14, 2024 Last month I visited my friend Cynthia Deegan’s home and garden, this time with Jennifer Jewell of Cultivating Place, who was in town to give a Garden Spark talk. I wanted Jennifer to meet Cynthia and see the soulful, joyful retreat she’s created at her Tarrytown bungalow with ...
Waterloo Greenway light installations return for Austin’s 10th anniversary Creek Show
November 13, 2024 An art-loving Creek Monster lurks in the dark waters of Austin’s Waller Creek, according to Creek Show lore. I’m on the lookout for it each November when I attend Waterloo Greenway’s annual Creek Show, and every now and then I catch a glimpse. But really it’s an ...
Cold-hardy cactus and more at plantsman Kelly Grummons’s garden
November 12, 2024 While in Denver this fall, I found Colorado gardeners to be warm and generous about sharing their creations and eager to make introductions to other gardeners they admire. That’s how I came to meet plantsman Kelly Grummons, co-owner of specialty nursery Prairie Storm Nursery. How, exactly? After ...
After derecho devastation, a garden blazes beautifully
November 08, 2024 The derecho in Houston last May snapped in half a tall tree that shaded my sister’s tiny Heights backyard. Miraculously, while it caused some damage, the broken tree didn’t take out the house, swimming pool, or patio seating on the way down. And now there’s a bonus ...
Heidi Harris’s Denver dry garden, inspired by David Salman, outshines any lawn
November 07, 2024 I love a good chain of inspiration, seeing how one gardener’s efforts can fire up the imagination and determination of another, and so on and so on. Heidi Harris, aka Denver Dry Garden, is a great example. She bought her home in Denver’s Regis/Berkeley neighborhood in 2018, ...
Boots on the ground in Mike Kintgen’s Denver garden
October 30, 2024 Cactus-planted boots in Mike’s garden I met Mike Kintgen, curator of the alpine collections at Denver Botanic Gardens and a super nice guy, when he came to Austin a few years ago. Mike must have a LOT of energy because he manages not only the large Rock ...
Falling for SummerHome Garden, Part 2
October 21, 2024 In my last post I shared the genesis of SummerHome Garden, a privately owned garden and public park in Denver’s Washington Park neighborhood. I visited in late September and spent a couple of hours early one morning taking pictures. The garden was so beautiful that I couldn’t ...
Fall at SummerHome Garden, Part 1
October 19, 2024 When I told gardening friends I’d be in Denver in late September, many urged me to visit SummerHome Garden. It was already on my list. SummerHome has had glowing media attention since its creation in 2020, and I’d read about it in Visionary and Shrouded in Light ...
Julie Clark and Mae Sanchez’s desert-inspired garden
October 15, 2024 I wasn’t in town for the Leaf Landscape Tour on October 5th, and one garden I was sad to miss belongs to two talented gardeners and knowledgeable plantswomen, Julie Clark and Mae Sanchez. Julie is the owner of Stronger Than Dirt Gardens, a fine garden maintenance company ...
