November 02, 2018
Red and gold leaves at Red Bud Isle
November 19, 2013 Austin has an extensive tree canopy, but fall color is not something we can brag about. Our deciduous trees generally fade to a pale yellow or brownish red right around the time people are putting up their Christmas lights. But this year would-be leaf peepers in Austin …
Fall hike at St. Edward’s Park in northwest Austin
November 18, 2013 We’ve been hiking at St. Edward’s Park — more of a greenbelt trail, really — for 20 years, enjoying the reliable flow of Bull Creek, the treetop views from the bluff that follows the creek, and the park’s relative solitude, especially as compared to Barton Creek Greenbelt …
Plant This: Bamboo muhly for Foliage Follow-Up
November 16, 2013 A feathery, chartreuse cloud in the garden, bamboo muhly (Muhlenbergia dumosa) is my favorite ornamental grass for hot, dry, sunny spots, where it grows vase-like to 4 to 5 feet tall and wide, tall enough to make a pretty border along the driveway, perhaps, hiding the neighbor’s …
Haters gonna hate when cedar fever starts
November 14, 2013 It’s coming…the dreaded cedar fever season in central Texas. Soon a lot of Austinites will be sniffling, sneezing, itching, and rubbing at watery, red-rimmed eyes, all because it’s mating season for the notorious Ashe juniper (Juniperus ashei), commonly known as mountain cedar or just plain cedar. Cedar …
Lawn Gone! giveaway and gift for the holidays
November 12, 2013 The editors at Amazon have put Lawn Gone! on their list of best gardening books of 2013, and I couldn’t be more thrilled! LAWN GONE! The perfect holiday giftI may be a little biased, but I do think Lawn Gone! would make a great Christmas, Hanukkah, or …
Fall Festival 2013 at Antique Rose Emporium: Arbors, labyrinth & garden shops
November 07, 2013 On a perfect fall day last Saturday at the Antique Rose Emporium near Brenham, Texas, after I’d given my Lawn Gone! talk, I strolled around for an hour taking pictures in the golden light of late afternoon. Felder Rushing, the final speaker of the day, was entertaining …
Fall Festival 2013 at Antique Rose Emporium: Beatrix Potter garden, bottle trees & cottage charm
November 06, 2013 After my talk at the Antique Rose Emporium near Brenham, Texas, last Saturday, I explored their display gardens again, enjoying the golden afternoon light and mild weather. The cottagey Beatrix Potter garden, enclosed by a purple picket fence, contains this charming seating area and whimsical features like …
Fall Festival 2013 at Antique Rose Emporium: Country Girl mums, grasses, and chapel garden
November 05, 2013 What happens when you get a gorgeous fall day in Texas, with sunny, blue skies, a cool breeze, and every perennial in the garden flowering its head off? If the 25th Annual Fall Festival of Roses is going on, you set your own garden aside for the …
Refresh Your Garden Design book release party and giveaway!
November 03, 2013 I’m delighted to be part of my friend Rebecca Sweet’s virtual book-release party for her new baby, Refresh Your Garden Design with Color, Texture & Form. Six other garden bloggers and I are hosting 7 great giveaways this week, all related to Rebecca’s theme of refreshing your …
Plant This: Dwarf firebush ignites the fall garden
November 01, 2013 I’m trying a dwarf variety of the popular firebush (Hamelia patens ‘Compacta’ or ‘Glabra’) in a mostly sunny spot in my neighbor’s garden that I help tend, and it’s performed beautifully all summer and into fall, requiring little water once established and blooming its head off through …
Garden skeletons wish you a Happy Halloween!
October 31, 2013 Who’s haunting your garden this Halloween? Perhaps a few staring faces? These skinny fellows have worked themselves to the bone. But even skeletons enjoy the late October garden. I hope you do too! Happy Halloween! __________ UPCOMING APPEARANCES & BOOK-SIGNINGS Saturday, November 2, 1:00-2:00 pm — Antique …
Gorgeous gravel garden outshines former lawn in Lakewood garden
October 29, 2013 Whenever landscape architect Curt Arnette of Sitio Design invites me to see one of his gardens, I say, “I’ll be right there!” Last Saturday we toured a 1-year-old garden in the Lakewood neighborhood of West Austin that he designed and that his cousin John Gibson (of Gibson …
Plant This: Queen Victoria agave
October 28, 2013 With chunky, triangular leaves iced in precise white lines, and with a tight, symmetrical rosette shape almost too perfect to be real, Queen Victoria agave (Agave victoriae-reginae) is as regal as its name suggests. This little agave is decidedly not queen-sized, however. In contrast to the SUV-sized …
Moody blue palm, sunlit grasses, and popping orange mallow
October 26, 2013 Some plants need a little more time, that’s all. The adage says that in the third year, a garden leaps. For the silver Mediterranean fan palm (Chamaerops humilis var. argentea) I planted four years ago, the leaping growth I’d begun to despair of seeing has finally occurred …
