November 02, 2018
I’m a sucker for squid agave
Do you enjoy squid games? I sure do — if they involve one of my favorite agaves, the gloriously tentacled squid agave (Agave bracteosa) …
Garden scenes before the Memphis Fling
June 05, 2025 Ghost plant I’m off to Memphis for the Garden Fling, an annual meetup of people who “garden” on social media! I’ve attended every Fling since it began in Austin in 2008, and I’m excited to see Memphis Fling gardens and meet the other attendees from all over …
Fond farewell to the screech owl family
By Memorial Day, the three screech owlets in our garden had flown the coop — right on schedule. It’s hard to say goodbye …
Austin Home features Gardens of Texas
Design magazine Austin Home recommends my forthcoming book, Gardens of Texas, in their Summer 2025 Water & Land Issue …
Screech owlets ready to fly away
Aw, they grow up so fast! All three screech owlets have left the nesting box and are roosting in a nearby live oak …
Agaves, salvias, and wildflowers going strong
Early summer is a good time in the garden, with late wildflowers in bloom and foliage still fresh and green. Let’s see what’s new …
First owlet leaves the nest, two more in box
Several times a day and night I pop outside to check on and photograph the screech owl family nesting in our front yard. I’m obsessed …
Garden flowers as summer arrives
The garden catches my eye every day as it transitions to early summer flowering. Here are a few recent photos …
Night owls
I’ve always been a night owl, and right now we have a family of them in the garden. They sleep by day and hunt by night to feed their owlets …
Diana’s hilly new garden
My friend Diana Kirby moved across town 6 years ago and has been making her new garden in very different conditions from her old one …
More fox and owl action in the garden
I’d seen her, but my husband hadn’t. So yesterday evening, we did a fox stakeout. And then she scrabbled up on the 6-foot fence …
Owls, lizards, finches, and fox at home in my garden
Watching wild creatures make their homes, hunt, and raise their young in the garden hugely motivates my gardening efforts …
Lawn-free prairie garden of Native Son’s Danny Bravens
At his home garden, Danny Bravens of Native Son Gardens replaced thirsty turf with low-water, densely planted, native prairie plants …
Come hear Joey Santore of Crime Pays… speak at Garden Spark in Austin
Come hear Joey Santore of Crime Pays But Botany Doesn’t at his June 19th presentation for Garden Spark in Austin! …
