Tank ponds and spring blooms in Lori’s garden
In mid-April I popped over to my friend Lori Daul‘s garden in South Austin, bringing with me a small posse of visiting garden writers and editors. Any excuse for another visit to Lori’s pond-a-licious garden!
Her front-yard stock-tank pond was abloom with starry pink and yellow waterlilies.
‘Arizona Star’ agave — eye-catching with matte leaves striped moonlight yellow and sage green
Variegated canna was just coming up behind it, unfurling paddle-shaped leaves.
Poppies added neon pink and purple, as well as seafoam green seedheads.
Gulf penstemon and bronze fennel make a pretty combo.
Lori squeezes in a surprising number of water features, big and small, throughout her compact garden.
A long, oval stock-tank pond runs along the side-yard fence, making a garden room out of this frequently overlooked space. Lori’s kitchen window looks out on this view — so much better than just a boring fence!
A shapely prickly pear in a dish planter gains stature atop a glazed pot, which itself is elevated on concrete pavers.
A leaning back-of-door mirror doubles the beauty.
In the back garden, one of Lori’s many face planters holds ‘Quadricolor’ agaves, ‘Evergold’ sedge, and foxtail fern.
Beyond, a gigantic whale’s tongue agave, elevated in a stock tank, reins over a sunny border. Its powder-blue foliage shines against a blue wall in the background.
Smoke tree foliage and whale’s tongue agave
A mesquite tree makes a living garden arch inviting you onto the patio. Blue bottles give the mesquite a little Southern flair.
The patio overlooks Lori’s biggest stock-tank pond, an 8-footer.
Lori ground out this rock herself to hold water, an offering for birds and lizards.
Another fountain bubbles away next to a smoke tree and beaked yucca.
‘Silver King’ artemisia, Old Man prickly pear, and ‘Blue Chill’ salvia make a frosty combo — good for hot summer days to come.
A rubber ducky bobs in yet another stock-tank pond by the patio.
That big-daddy pond, though, draws everyone near. This time it wore a cloak of green, some sort of floater plant. Purple-leaved colocasia and crinum also thrive in the water.
Side view
Behind the pond, shade lovers grow under a row of cinnamon-trunked crape myrtles.
Back around to that massive whale’s tongue agave
Check out those shark-fin teeth!
And cheers to these ladies for traveling all the way to Austin — from Seattle, Iowa, and Boise — to visit gardens, see wildflowers, and meet up with friends: Lorene Edwards Forkner, garden-owner Lori Daul (in sunglasses), Susan Appleget Hurst, Debra Prinzing, Mary Ann Newcomer, and me.
Thanks for sharing your garden with us, Lori!
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I love all those water features in particular. No problems with raccoons in your part of Texas?
Oh yes indeed. In fact, Lori frequently has after-hours raccoon raves in her garden. She perseveres though. 😉
What beautiful pictures and inspiration in this garden! Does she have to cover or move the cactus inside during the winter freezes? I’d love to visit some of these in Austin as well!!
She does cover/wrap certain plants, like her ‘Alphonse Karr’ bamboo and others. She tells me that the Old Man opuntia is winter hardy provided it stays dry.
Pam, I love this post so much! It brings me back to our visit to Lori’s last month when we spent five beautiful days in Austin and beyond! Your eye sees all the great design details and I loved reading more about the plants and decor!
That was a fun morning spent with you all, Debra! I’m so glad we were able to visit a few gardens together during your busy trip to Texas.
What a lush garden scape she has! I know you were lusting over her whale tongue agave. Do you still have one/some in your garden? Looks as if you gals had a good time together.
Oh yes, I have 6 whale’s tongue agaves in my garden. But hers is especially gorgeous!
The water features looks very nice, I also love the prickly pear cactus on the dish planter. I wonder how hard would it be to maintain all the stock tanks water features, I only have a small fountain but I would love to have more water in the garden.
Beautiful garden.
I think Lori would agree that all water features require regular maintenance. I have a blog post about how to do the big spring-cleaning a stock-tank pond requires (at least in Texas, where I live): https://www.penick.net/digging/?p=20908. At the end of that post you’ll find links to my other posts about making and maintaining stock-tank ponds. I find them quite doable, but they do require a certain amount of work.