November 02, 2018
Mark your calendar for Houston Open Days garden tour
March 04, 2014 3965 Del Monte Garden. Image courtesy of Hester & Hardaway Photographers, provided by the Garden Conservancy Garden tour season kicks off early in Texas, and even earlier in near-tropical Houston. If this lingering winter has you longing for palms, green hedges, garden rooms, and the occasional elephant …
Nursery visit: Redenta’s Garden in Dallas
February 26, 2014 Don’t you love it when you discover a new garden shop in a city you’ve visited many times before? Every time I’m in Dallas (about 4 hours north of Austin), I try to make time for the Dallas Arboretum. Last Saturday, after admiring the flowering cherries during …
Cherry blossom bonanza at Dallas Blooms
February 24, 2014 I’m not normally drawn to massive displays of crayon-bright bedding annuals, preferring instead the seasonal beauty and interplay of texture and form provided by perennials, shrubs, and trees. But this winter has been, by Texas standards, rather long and chilly, so when I heard that Dallas Arboretum‘s …
First screech owl of the season
February 21, 2014 While planting in the back garden yesterday, I looked up into the trees above the back fence, as I always do, to see if I could spot an owl. What a surprise to see this little screech staring right back at me. He or she was probably …
Color Guard yucca is good as gold
February 20, 2014 ‘Color Guard’ yucca may be moving toward Knock Out rose status, ubiquitous next to drive-through lanes at Taco Cabana, in gas station medians, and in xeriscaped neighborhood entrances. But I don’t care. It’s still golden to me. With winter color like this and a tolerance for summer’s …
Side-yard garden, pruned, green, and ready for spring
February 19, 2014 I’ve taken to strolling the garden each evening to look for the earliest signs of spring. This section of the garden, the hillside path leading from the front yard to the back, is going on five years old, and it’s finally achieved some structure thanks to maturing …
Plant This: ‘Winter Gem’ boxwood
February 18, 2014 Winter is when you really appreciate the evergreens in your garden, even in green-winter places like central Texas. While I rely heavily on non-shrub evergreens like agave, yucca, and sotol, I also have a soft spot for oh-so-English boxwood, specifically the cultivar ‘Winter Gem’ (Buxus sinica var …
Evening in the garden after the late-winter cut-back
February 17, 2014 We woke to fog yesterday, and in the soft light and early morning chill, I got started on the garden’s annual cut-back of perennials and grasses. Six hours later, with muscles aching but the garden cleaned up for spring, I called it a day. I had much …
Book release party and giveaway: The 20-30 Something Garden Guide
February 16, 2014 It’s the season for garden book releases, and today I’m helping to celebrate my friend Dee Nash’s brand-new book, The 20-30 Something Garden Guide: A No Fuss, Down and Dirty Gardening 101 for Anyone Who Wants to Grow Stuff. I met Dee, an Oklahoma garden writer and …
Moving plants and cleaning up for Foliage Follow-Up
February 15, 2014 I’m posting for Foliage Follow-Up a day early this month because tomorrow I’m participating in a book release party and giveaway. But I couldn’t let our monthly celebration of leafy goodness slip away without a post. February is a turning point in the Austin gardening calendar. We …
Celebrating 8 years of a garden-blogging love affair
February 14, 2014 Eight years ago today I started this blog, eager to join the small but growing garden-blogging community that I’d been following for two years. Eight years later, I still count it as one of the best decisions I ever made, leading to creative fulfillment, professional opportunities, and …
Do More with Less Lawn: A guest post at Gardener’s Supply Company
February 11, 2014 Old Man Winter’s hoary fist may be clenched around much of the U.S., but (in a raspy Eddard Stark voice) spring is coming. Yes, it really is — and soon for those of us in the South, Southwest, and Southern CA. With lawn-mower and sprinkler season looming, …
Plant This: Agave lophantha ‘Quadricolor’
February 10, 2014 Need a little summer sunshine in your garden? Plant an Agave lophantha ‘Quadricolor’, a small agave with golden-edged, serrated leaves with reddish teeth that grab onto sunlight and simply glow. Stripes of pale celery, forest, and olive green run down the center of the leaves in snazzy …
Leveling a pot and potting it up
February 09, 2014 Sunny and 65 degrees F, yesterday was flat-out perfect gardening weather, and I puttered, planted, and potted nearly all day. One of my last projects before I collapsed indoors involved a bit of rearranging and ground prep in order to pot up a ‘Sharkskin’ agave that’s been …
