Gardens on Tour 2012: Brecourt Manor Garden & Foliage Follow-Up
The fourth garden on this year’s Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour, at 7316 Brecourt Manor Way in southwest Austin, was also the smallest, with only the back yard “gardened up.” The back yard opens to a view of the greenbelt beyond, so native plants were chosen to blend with the view, and entertaining areas are kept to either side of the lot so as not to block the view from the house. I like the distinctly Texas-style roofed pergola that shelters the dining patio.
Red yucca (Hesperaloe parviflora) blooms beside a dry creek.
A disappearing fountain is tucked beneath a wax myrtle near the dining area.
And a blue agave in a hot-orange pot makes a pretty focal point near the tiny back porch. This is definitely a garden that relies on foliage rather than flowers to create year-round interest, which segues me right into Foliage Follow-Up, a celebration of foliage on the 16th of every month (following the flowers of Bloom Day).
Ornamental native trees like Southern wax myrtle and Texas redbud provide leafy screening of the neighbors and softening of the fence line, and they create a cozy nook for a firepit surrounded by comfy seating, giving the garden another entertaining area.
Wax myrtle and cenizo, another nice foliage combination
Redbud and wax myrtle, fronted by flowering perennials and a potted agave. The flagstone path leads you over a dry stream and back around to the front yard.
We ran into Jenn Butel, who blogs at Rebar and Roses. (What? Not updated in 2 years! Have you quit blogging, Jenn?)
Jenn kindly took a photo of our touring group: David Cristiani of The Desert Edge, Daphne Richards, Catherine Jones of The Whimsical Gardener, Renee Studebaker of Renee’s Roots, yours truly, and Jenny Stocker of Rock Rose.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my recap of the tour. I skipped one garden that I’d previously seen on tour—more of a wildscape than a garden—at Jester Wild Drive. For a look back at the colorful, waterwise Zadock Woods Garden, click here.
And for my fellow foliage lovers, please join me in posting about your lovely leaves of May for Foliage Follow-Up, a way to remind ourselves of the importance of foliage in the garden. Leave your link to your Foliage Follow-Up post in a comment. I really appreciate it if you’ll also include a link to this post in your own post (sharing link love!). If you can’t post so soon after Bloom Day, no worries. Just leave your link when you get to it.
All material © 2006-2012 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Have a great time at the fling! I wish I could make it, but my son graduates from college this Saturday. As always, your foliage and descriptions are fantastic! Thanks for hosting Foliage Follow-Up. http://plantpostings.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-in-midwest.html
http://elephantseyegarden.blogspot.com/2012/05/may-around-our-garden.html
Mine went in early, now I’ll update from your April link.
We are going into winter, the garden is in party mode. Green and buds.
Flowers will be along later!
(BTW since yesterday your blog is battling to load, especially the pictures, may just be my Internet connection, but it is your site that is slow for me)
Thanks for the heads-up, EE. I’m not sure what the problem is (and it loads normally for me at the moment), but thanks for not giving up on your visit to Digging! —Pam
What a lovely time you had! The garden ideas are bubbling as I look at these photos. Thanks for sharing the tour. And thanks for hosting.
http://www.thesagebutterfly.blogspot.com/2012/05/seven-faces-of-my-garden-gbbd.html
I adore that red yucca–every time I visit my sister in Oklahoma, I come back with more photos of that than everything else. I also love all your spiky succulents from prior posts–mine in CT grow in pots of course. We’re in a bit of a drought up here this year–not so severe as yours last year, but still bad for us. It’ll start showing up in my posts next week! http://gardendaze.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/foliage-follow-up-14/
Looks like you had lots of fun with a great group and found some good ideas. I like the Texas style amenities of this garden.
I’m featuring container plants for May
http://rockoakdeer.blogspot.com/2012/05/emerald-lace-for-may-2012-foliage.html
You lucky girls … wish I could join you. Maybe next year 🙂
Here is my post for Foliage Follow Up in May: http://www.thegardeningblog.co.za/gardening/foliage-follow-up-what-happened/
Wow…I’ll take that orange pot with the blue Agave! So how did David hold up with all the ladies?
My Foliage Follow-up post contrasts what might be the smallest (and softest) leaves in my garden with the largest ones: http://dangergarden.blogspot.com/2012/05/foliage-follow-up-contrasts-small-soft.html
David C. is high-energy and not shy about hanging out with plant-nerd women. We all had a good time. Did your ears burn? We talked about you and your agave love a few times. —Pam
Hi Pam! I have really enjoyed all the garden tour pictures. You have taken some wonderful photos over the past month. I’m so looking forward to your Fling photos. Thank you for hosting Foliage Follow-Up. Here is my selection of foliage pictures for this month.http://www.lucysinthegarden.com/2012/05/foliage-follow-up-may-2012.html
great post! I absolutely love the Hesperaloe parviflora. http://parallel49palms.blogspot.ca/2012/05/foliage-follow-up.html
What fun do the tour with fellow garden bloggers! Is that tree in the 6th photo the wax myrtle? Really lovely shape. Here’s some foliage in my yard this sunny day (thanks for hosting): http://waitingforplumeria.blogspot.com/2012/05/foliage-follow-up-may-2012.html
Yes, that’s Southern wax myrtle, Amy, and a pretty one. I love all your tinges of red and purple in the plants in your post. Thanks for joining in for Foliage Follow-Up. —Pam
It must be great to be able to meet up with other bloggers! Loved the use of gravel and boulders and cobbles to contrast the texture of the foliage. Here’s my link for Foliage Followup
http://www.leavesnbloom.com/2012/05/whats-in-bloom-in-may.html
Who needs flowers when you can have splashes of color that never fade (I’m thinking of that orange pot). i really enjoy these tours, and thanks, as always, for the foliage forum. http://bannersbyricki.com/archives/2226
Yay! foliage follow up! http://gardeninginaustin.blogspot.com/2012/05/foliage-follow-up-may-2012.html
It looks like a lot of fun, making these tours with blogging friends.
Finally getting around to sending my foliage link. Thanks again for hosting.
http://patchworkgarden.blogspot.com/2012/05/after-day-of-rain-yesterday-today.html
Looks like 6 peas in a pod.
Hooray, I managed to get my post done before the day is done! Here’s my link: http://bonneylassie.blogspot.com/2012/05/wordless-foliage-followup-wednesday.html
Yes. Here is my foliage post….greggosgarden.blogspot.com/2012/05/foliage-followup-may-of-12.html
Lets try that again. http://greggosgarden.blogspot.com/2012/05/foliage-followup-may-of-12.html
Great to see all of you in one photo. I love your garden tours so much. What fun!!!
I’ve joined in with a Texas-style tropical follow-up. And…included some link love (as you put it :-)…back to Digging.
David
http://tropicaltexana.blogspot.com/2012/05/freeze-frame-foliage-follow-up.html
I like how this garden has a nice mixture of rocks and green….great, functional hardscape areas. I especially like that fire pit table…interesting! You and your friends look like you had a blast – I bet it is fun when y’all get together. 🙂
cool yucca….
Looks like a quaint little native garden and what a nice looking group of garden bloggers you are!
My canna lilies are unfurling their beautiful leaves!
Happy Foliage Follow-Up!
Lea
Lea’s Menagerie
Deja vu! Great shots of either side w/ tree and chairs…mine didn’t come out as well (of course!). And of course all of us! Great to see how you saw the garden.
PS today your site loads promptly. No problems.
Oh I love both those seating areas -how to choose? I am really really late, but here is some more foliage – my colorful crotons http://africanaussie.blogspot.com.au/2012/05/croton-foliage.html
Hi, AA. Thanks for posting! I wasn’t able to leave a comment on your post without a Google account, so I’ll leave it here: It’s never too late for a foliage post! I’m glad you joined in. I love that splashy croton leaf. —Pam