The Gardener of Good and Evil makes my garden look good
Water visually cools Pam’s back garden. Photo by Lori Daul.
Although she claims both a halo and a pitchfork in her blog name, Lori Daul of The Gardener of Good and Evil is purely a force for good — or at least that’s what I believe after seeing how beautifully she photographed my garden.
The repetition of plants and paving draw the eye to Pam’s stock tank pond. Photo by Lori Daul.
Lori came over one recent morning to take promotional shots for the Inside Austin Gardens tour on October 17. She’s on the tour’s organizing committee, and, as I mentioned earlier this week, my garden will be one of the stops on the tour. See “Oh, Deer!” on the Inside Austin Gardens website.
A stone fish stays cool in the stock tank pond. Photo by Lori Daul.
Lori kindly gave me permission to repost her images, and I’m including her captions too. She captured the garden from quite a few new perspectives I haven’t exploited myself. Regular readers will notice there’s not one photo of Moby or a long shot of the garden shed or the steel-pipe planter out front — in other words, none of my own standby shots. Her photos help me to see my garden afresh!
Pam’s DIY stock tank pond anchors the back garden. Photo by Lori Daul.
I’ll let Lori’s images and captions speak for themselves, like a tour guide, with some follow-up comments from me. Like this: if you’re interested in making your own stock-tank pond, I’ve written a 3-part series to show you how it’s done.
A gazing ball gives a wider perspective of the back garden. Photo by Lori Daul.
This is an homage to East Side Patch garden, where I first saw a gazing ball cradled quirkily by a cedar stump.
An insect hotel adds a pop of bright color and a creative habitat to the front garden. Photo by Lori Daul.
The tuteur and “bee bungalow” are from TerraTrellis.
Some rustic texture in the front garden. Photo by Lori Daul.
The little metal wrens are from The Natural Gardener. I just screwed them onto my cedar bench. Other bird species are available too.
‘Margaritaville’ yuccas punctuate a sedge front lawn. Photo by Lori Daul.
The sedge is Berkeley sedge (Carex divulsa). Here’s a post about planting the sedge lawn.
Color echoes in the front garden. Photo by Lori Daul.
That’s a ‘Green Goblet’ agave underplanted with woolly stemodia (Stemodia lanata).
Garlic chives begin to unfold in front of a ‘Vertigo’ fountain grass. Photo by Lori Daul.
Spiky and soft contrast in this pairing of bamboo muhly, dyckia, and pink skullcap. Photo by Lori Daul.
It’s actually white skullcap (the foliage is identical, and blooms were sparse). The dyckia are ‘Burgundy Ice’, a cold-tolerant cultivar.
An “octotillo” bottle tree contrasts with the bright orange of Mexican honeysuckle and orange pots. Photo by Lori Daul.
Here’s a post about the ocotillo bottle tree, which Bob Pool made for me.
Blues upon blues. Photo by Lori Daul.
A low-water grouping on the back porch. Photo by Lori Daul.
Fish swim through a potted Sticks-On-Fire cactus. Photo by Lori Daul.
I totally copied this from Debra Lee Baldwin, who posted a photo of her own wine-charm fish on Gardening Gone Wild.
Succulents spill from a DIY cinderblock planter wall. Photo by Lori Daul.
Want to make your own cinderblock wall planter?
A colorful pot echoes the shape of its cactus. Photo by Lori Daul.
A cheerful gnome keeps an eye on the back garden. Photo by Lori Daul.
Blue bottles contrast with the bold yellow ‘Color Guard’ yucca. Photo by Lori Daul.
A tiny potted surprise. Photo by Lori Daul.
Color and form echoes in the back garden. Photo by Lori Daul.
A fun surprise in a pot of feathergrass, chili pequin, and manfreda. Photo by Lori Daul.
Mexican honeysuckle contrasts with the deep purple of a ‘Vertigo’ fountain grass. Photo by Lori Daul.
The hanging Circle Pot is from Potted, one of my favorite out-of-town garden shops.
A feathery arm of Mexican weeping bamboo softens a planting of Mexican honeysuckle. Photo by Lori Daul.
An intriguing low-water combo of sedge and Purple Heart. Photo by Lori Daul.
This was not on purpose. I tried to eradicate the aggressive purple heart before planting the Texas sedge, but we all know how that goes. For now I’m trying to keep a happy balance, which means yanking out handfuls of the purple heart whenever I get a chance.
Twist-leaf yucca and ghost plant make a great low-water grouping in a shady corner of the garden. Photo by Lori Daul.
Native nolina pairs with native Barbados cherry in a semievergreen combo. Photo by Lori Daul.
This Texas nolina has lived in this pot for 12 years (click and scroll down to 5th photo for an early picture). I brought it with me from my former garden, and it’s slowly grown to beautiful proportions, its spaghetti-like leaves cascading to the ground. The Barbados cherry is the dwarf variety, Malpighia glabra ‘Nana’.
Yucca rostrata shimmers against a deep blue backdrop. Photo by Lori Daul.
My thanks to Lori for making my garden look so good, even in the dead of summer, and for allowing me to share her photos! Visit the tour website to check out the other gardens that will be on the tour. There’s a lot to see!
All material © 2006-2015 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Thank you for complimenting my photography! Your garden is so well designed that taking pictures is a breeze. It was hard to narrow it down to a reasonable number of favorites to post on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour website!
And I think it’s hilarious that your sedge and purple heart combo wasn’t on purpose. You couldn’t have highlighted the color of your wall any better! I thought it was brilliant. And I’d actually been considering the same combo in front of my porch, so it was great to see that it looks just as good in person as it did in my imagination!
Well, if you think it’s brilliant I better start claiming it was on purpose — ha! Thanks again for showing my garden so beautifully, Lori. —Pam
These were wonderful! (Nice work Lori!) It’s always fun to see a new take on a garden you think you know so well. I love love love that combo of sedge and Purple Heart – whether it was on purpose or not.
Hope to be there myself one day Pam…
I’ll be ready for your visit with handfuls of purple heart to send home with you, Loree. —Pam
it’s a gift to see your own garden thru someone else’s eyes.
The sun ray paving around the pond is wonderful from ‘above’.
Thanks, Diana. It is nice to be able to view the paving from above. —Pam
Great job, Lori.
You captured Pam’s garden perfectly.
Your garden is even more beautiful than you show us. I loved several of the little whimsy plantings – especially the fish swimming through cacti.
I love going on an outing with another photographer or two and then getting to compare pictures. Everyone has a different perception that comes out in the photographs.
And I never knew you had any chili pequin. I love that and have had it in several of my gardens. Bluejays love the hot berries and I also love chili pequin sauce.
Several chile pequins were here under the live oaks when we moved in, and I acquired the one in the photo from Michael at Plano Prairie Garden. They are wonderful for late season color, but I’ve never cooked with them. —Pam
It’s always interesting to see a garden through other eyes but yours shines in your own photos too.
Aw, thanks, Kris. —Pam
love the color combos – plants and pots. The front fence/divider is awesome also, the scale is perfect.
Thanks, Greggo. The side fence has given my garden a much-needed sense of enclosure, but the openness keeps it neighbor-friendly. —Pam
Stunning, Pam! Wow. So gorgeous. It’s always interesting to see your own garden through another person’s eyes. I find it inspiring. Love the water feature, it really adds sparkle.
Thanks, Tamara. The stock-tank pond was one of the first features in my garden. I love having a little pond, and containerizing it makes maintenance less onerous. —Pam
Thanks for sharing such amazing photos. It’s full of inspiration for our own gardens. I could look at pictures of your garden everyday and see something new and amazing.
Thanks so much, Brian. —Pam
I hadn’t realized how close the stock pond and the swimming pool were to each other, until seeing today’s pictures. Sue
The back yard has tricky dimensions: it’s shallow from house to back fence, but the elevation drops significantly (hence the terracing), and yet it’s quite wide. So it reads as a long, skinny space, with the pool dominating one end and the pond and shed anchoring the other. —Pam
Great photos of a wonderful garden! Reading this post was like taking a walk through the garden with Lori and Pam.
I’m glad you enjoyed the pics, Carol! —Pam
Like the others said, it’s funny to know that your purple heart and sedge combination was not purposeful. It totally works! By all means keep it.
Serendipity accounts for a lot of what’s wonderful in a garden. I need to learn to appreciate this combo a little more, apparently. —Pam
Lovely indeedy!!!
You have created a magical, soothing, cooling garden and I love it!
Thank you, Lucinda! —Pam
Isn’t it fun to see One’s garden from someone elses perspective! I felt like I knew your garden well from seeing your pictures from the get go. It looks even more beautiful through Lori’s lens if that is possible. So many of those agaves I wish I could grow into such beautiful proportions. Fun fun….
Your last comment may strike many Austinites as ironic, considering we’re often searching for agave species that will stay relatively small and not swallow our gardens. 😉 —Pam
Not to take away one iota of Lori’s talent, but seriously, nobody needs to make your garden look good, lady. Your garden looks good all on its own. Now give somebody the challenge to take some photos that make your garden look lousy!?! THAT would be problematic.
It is totally fun to see Lori’s “eye” at work in these photos, how her different angles and framing choices work to give us glimpses we might not even catch in person. When I’m taking photos I often lean in or over in ways I don’t indulge in when I’m just standing around, looking. These photos are priceless for that.
I’ve decided those of us who work a space simply see it differently than folk who are there to enjoy the results. Perhaps we can’t help breaking the view up into the different areas as we think about them, or as we typically work in them?
Certainly a casual viewer will take things for granted that the gardener of a space would not. Your stunning accidental combination of purple heart and sedge is a great example. Maybe you look at that and tense up just a little, because that was NOT the look you were going for and despite all your yanking out that purple heart just keeps coming back (and coming back…and coming back…). The rest of us aren’t burdened with any original vision for how that bed would be, we just enjoy that it looks great to our eyes.
All of which has me walking around my own spaces, trying to look at what IS there, rather than what I’d always imagined, or hoped for. Maybe Lori can go around to take photos of all our spaces – teach us how to see our own spaces the way others enjoy them.
I always enjoy your thoughtful, musing comments, Deb. Thank you so much for taking the time to make them! Yes, I think you’re right about how a gardener’s expectations color what she sees (and photographs). This is why it’s so wonderful to see one’s garden through someone else’s lens. —Pam
Your garden is a delight, and so cooling. I like the color accents- the blue ocotillo tree with the red honeysuckle and red ring planter, and the adorable bright fish swimming in the cactus “seaweed”.
Thanks, Hannah. I love color and like the garden to be fun to explore. Lori did a wonderful exploration! —Pam
It must be so interesting to see your garden from the eyes of someone different! Beautiful photographs, and gorgeous garden. I love all the touches of blue in the garden, and your uses of sedge. And the fish ‘swimming’ through the plant branches are so cute!
Thanks, Indie! —Pam
Finally able to comment…I’ll say she brought out some different views, and it’s matured in a striking way.The stock tank w/ rings of yuccas, bamboo muhlys is my favorite view with the sedges and purple hearts. And I thought it was fine in 2010, when we enjoyed BBQ and I saw it the first time in person.
But now…and those colored walls…home run.
There have been many changes since you first visited, David. It has definitely had time to mature since then, and I’ve had a chance to invest in some significant hardscape in that time. I’m glad you like the results. I know I do — not that it’s ever done… 🙂 —Pam