Exploring outside Portland: Columbia River Gorge, lavender farm on the Fruit Loop, and Cannon Beach
August 20, 2014 Before the Garden Bloggers Fling in Portland, Oregon, last month, my husband and I took a few days to explore the city and surrounding region. On our last day we rented a car and drove east along I-84 to see the majestic Columbia River Gorge. Vista House, ...
Tanzanian safari: Mto Wa Mbu village
January 12, 2014 After the nature walk at the hotel, we drove down to the village of Mto wa Mbu, at the foot of the Rift Valley, for a guided tour (June 2007). Our guide told us that out of 120 tribal groups in Tanzania, 110 are represented by people ...
Read This: The Bulb Hunter
December 10, 2013The Bulb Hunter Flower bulbs — those turnipy looking, husky things in mesh bags, crowded into crayola-bright display bins at the big-box stores — suffer from granny’s-garden syndrome: they’re seen as old-fashioned, fussy, and patience-straining in today’s want-it-now culture. Unlike a flat of annuals, they don’t offer instant ...
The DreamFlower desert garden of Lorien Tersey
October 26, 2012Arizona adobe When you have to jackhammer the “soil” to plant anything, when your garden gets only 12 inches of rainfall a year, when you live in a desert, you just know gardening isn’t going to be easy. And yet, despite these conditions in Tucson, Arizona, which I ...
Support Your Independent Nursery: The Natural Gardener GIVEAWAY
October 01, 2012Buddha says, Support your local nurseries. Each week in October, which is Support Your Independent Nursery Month, I am featuring one of my favorite Austin-area nurseries here at Digging. To make things even more interesting, I’m also hosting a giveaway every week—one from each nursery! This week I’m ...
Romantic gardens of Fearrington House, North Carolina
August 22, 2012 Lovely strolling gardens wrap all sides of the country inn at Fearrington Village, near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, which I visited earlier this month. I spent a happy hour early one morning exploring its grounds, which include an English-style white garden, an herb garden, shrub borders, and ...
Oreo cows, goats & gardens at Fearrington Village, Pittsboro, NC
August 21, 2012 My dad lives in Fearrington Village, a planned community of mostly retirees outside of Chapel Hill, North Carolina. It’s a lovely community of 2,000, built on wooded, rolling hills, anchored by an English-style village square with a few shops, an independent bookstore (sadly lacking in garden titles, ...
Wildflower safari in the Texas Hill Country
April 11, 2010 Does this cow know how beautiful its Hill Country pasture is this spring? Fields so blue your teeth ache. Tender, new leaves so green they’ll break your heart. A magic carpet of Texas wildflowers. This was our quest yesterday as we drove the famed Willow City Loop ...
Switch Willo Stables
June 13, 2008 During the past week of 100-degree days, I enjoyed a twice-daily visit to Switch Willo Stables in northwest Austin, where my daughter attended a riding day camp. What a beautiful, lush oasis tucked away in a neighborhood that nowadays is practically in-town. When Switch Willo opened back ...
Tour of Stone House Vineyard
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 ...
