November 02, 2018
Drive-By Gardens: Contemporary, lawn-gone front yard
June 12, 2024 I walked by this home in my northwest Austin ‘hood the other day and — bam! — the landscaping stopped me in my tracks. A silver-green planting of whale’s tongue agave, woolly stemodia, and grassy Lindheimer nolina (I think) makes a textural, deer-resistant welcome to this 1970s …
Storybook Hutsell houses in Dallas’s historic Lakewood
June 10, 2024 Do you ever cruise through an interesting neighborhood, gawking at houses? I love to. While in Dallas a few weeks ago, I detoured through historic Lakewood to gawk at its storybook houses. Around 50 Lakewood homes were built by architect Clifford D. Hutsell in the 1920s and ’30s …
North Haven Gardens nursery in Dallas
For more than 70 years, North Haven Gardens has been a resource for plants and supplies for gardeners in north Dallas. Here’s my tour …
Cindy Bolz’s Asian-style garden of Japanese maples
Cindy Bolz loves Japanese maples and is growing sixty — sixty! — in her serene, Asian-style garden in Farmers Branch, Texas …
Michael’s Plano Prairie Garden in spring
I finally got to visit Michael McDowell’s Plano prairie garden in springtime. Purple coneflowers were stealing the show …
The eclectic, welcoming garden of Suzy Renz
Suzy Renz’s Dallas garden offers happy curb appeal. Potted plants and a found-art sculpture draw you toward the front porch …
Big ears and spots: it’s fawn season
My garden is a nursery for baby deer in May. I’ll admit the fawns are awfully cute whenever I discover one “hidden” in the grasses …
Garden Spark’s 8th season brings exciting new speakers
Garden Spark, my speaker series on garden design and ecology, will return for its 8th season of in-person talks in Austin this fall …
Prairie wildflower oasis at Native Texas Park in Dallas
In Dallas, I swung by the Bush Native Texas Park before sunset to see the wildflower show I’d been hearing about. I was not disappointed …
Eye-candy containers at Vivero nursery
At Vivero Growers nursery, I oohed and aahed over big, beautiful containers planted as eye-catching showpieces …
Deborah Hornickel’s modern-formal garden invites outdoor lounging
Deborah Hornickel’s tiny bungalow lives larger by extending her living space outdoors with a pear allee and other architectural features …
Tanglewild Gardens merges passion for daylilies with tropical wow factor
Tanglewild is a botanical fantasia unlike any other garden in Austin, with palms, bananas, cannas, and daylilies galore …
Early summer flowers popping, deer fawning
Flowers are blooming and fawns are appearing in the garden. It’s the transition from spring to summer, a time of abundance …
Wildflowers, edibles, and hibiscus-munching tortoise at Teresa Garcia’s garden
A colorful patch of wildflowers greeted me in Teresa Garcia’s garden. Edibles, a pond garden, chickens, bees, and a tortoise thrive here too …
