Leveling a pot and potting it up
February 09, 2014 Sunny and 65 degrees F, yesterday was flat-out perfect gardening weather, and I puttered, planted, and potted nearly all day. One of my last projects before I collapsed indoors involved a bit of rearranging and ground prep in order to pot up a ‘Sharkskin’ agave that’s been ...
How to plant a sedge lawn
August 23, 2013 If mowing once a year sounds good, if pouring less water on the ground is a goal, and if you appreciate or can tolerate a shaggy, meadowy look, a sedge lawn may be your perfect alternative to a thirsty, summer-crisped St. Augustine lawn. Sedges exist for seemingly ...
How to spring clean your stock tank container pond
March 26, 2013 A few years ago I wrote a post explaining how to make a container pond in a stock tank, and many readers have since written to tell me they’ve made their own ponds by following my instructions. I also get a lot of questions about how to ...
String beads and broken china to make a pot necklace
January 30, 2013 Yesterday I opened a storage box and found this terracotta olla adorned with a bead-and-broken-china necklace I’d made for it about 7 years ago. Stowed away at some point, probably during our move, it was forgotten. I decided it would look good sitting amid the winter-browned inland ...
How to green up your winter garden in central Texas
January 17, 2013 Texas dwarf palmetto (Sabal minor), foxtail fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Meyersii’), heartleaf skullcap (Scutellaria ovata), sparkler sedge (Carex phyllocephala ‘Sparkler’), and bamboo muhly (Muhlenbergia dumosa) add plenty of greenery to the winter garden. Audrey, a regular reader of Digging, recently asked me how to plant for winter greenery, ...
Winterizing a stock tank pond
November 22, 2012 “How to make a container pond in a stock tank” is consistently one of my most-viewed posts, and many readers have written to tell me they’ve made their own ponds by following my instructions. Recently two people asked me how to winterize their ponds, so I decided ...
How to pack plants in your suitcase for the flight home
November 02, 2012 Do you ever visit nurseries when you travel, or the garden of a friend who offers to dig up a few plants for you to take home? Or maybe you fly across the country to the Garden Bloggers Fling, the Garden Writers Association symposium, or one of ...
Plumbing pipe fountain adds life to stock-tank pond
June 05, 2012 A big shout-out and thank you to my handy husband, who created this plumbing-pipe-and-spigot fountain for me for Mother’s Day. I’d come home from a visit to my friend Cat’s garden in love with the look after seeing one that she and her husband made for their ...
Streetside bed reduces lawn, welcomes visitors
September 21, 2011 Now that the promise of fall is in the air (yeah, it’s only going to be 96 F today in Austin), you might be thinking about that dead strip of lawn along the street and what to do about it. How about ripping out your “hell strip” ...
Making a wood screen to hide the garden work zone
March 08, 2011 After planting my succulent wall last week, I built a contemporary-style cedar screen to hide the A/C unit, trash bins, and gardening miscellany from view of the upper-patio garden. I’m happy to borrow good design solutions from others, and I modeled my screen on one constructed by ...
Make a cinderblock wall planter
March 07, 2011 A two-week frenzy of outdoor projects has accompanied the first stirrings of spring here in Austin. This weekend I completed a project I began in January: a succulent wall planter made of cinderblocks, inspired by a photo I saw at Apartment Therapy of a project created by ...
Hillside gravel and timber path–done!
June 23, 2010 What joy in the completion of a long-delayed project! I’m not speaking of the narrow side garden itself, which is quickly filling in under the blazing sun’s heat, but the gravel-and-timber pathway that leads you through the sloping garden. I rarely pass up a chance to show ...
Laying a stone path
May 31, 2010 Having procrastinated on those grass paths in the back garden long enough, this weekend I hauled home two trunkloads of limestone pieces and got to work. Naturally, I ran out of stone while laying the path on Sunday, and I knew the stone yards would be closed ...
Make a plant support out of cattle panel wire
April 02, 2010 If recent tweets among Austin garden bloggers are any indication, we’ve snapped up pot after pot of ‘Senorita Rosalita’ cleome at the Natural Gardener and at Home Depots all over town this spring, and I made sure to grab two for myself in the buying frenzy. Last ...
Peek-a-boo gate with bottle tree view
December 12, 2009 A glimpse of garden through a gate is tantalizing, making you want to see what’s hidden on the other side. Even if an expensive custom gate is beyond your means, you can add interest to a typical suburban board gate like mine with a peek-a-boo cut-out. One ...
Separating agave pups is ruff but doggone rewarding
August 17, 2009 When you grow agaves, mangaves, and aloes—which love our Texas summers—you often get pups. That’s what you call the baby plants that grow up under or beside the mother plant’s leaves. Not all agaves produce pups (the ‘Whale’s Tongue’ does not), and that can be a plus ...
