August 11, 2011 If you’re lucky enough to live on a hilltop in Seattle, odds are you have a nice view of something, seeing as the city is surrounded by mountains and the sea. In the Epping Garden, which we visited on Day Two of the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling, …

August 10, 2011 What could top off a day of garden touring at the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling? A happy hour, complete with swag bags, at stylish urban nursery/garden shop Ravenna Gardens. Located in an upscale outdoor mall just a couple of blocks from our hotel in the University District, …

August 09, 2011 Anneliese of The CobraHead Blog strikes a pose in the Dunn Gardens Following two private-garden visits on Day One of the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling, we were bused to the Dunn Gardens for lunch and a docent-led tour. In 1915, in what is now the Broadview neighborhood, …

August 08, 2011 After spending more than half the allotted time admiring Shelagh Tucker’s garden (on Day One of the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling), I realized I was running out of time to see Suzette and Jim Birrell’s garden and darted next door. How different from Shelagh’s dry gravel garden …

August 07, 2011 Six Austin garden bloggers journeyed to Seattle for the Garden Bloggers Fling. That’s me on the left, Caroline of The Shovel-Ready Garden, Becky of Wolf’s Garden, Vicki of Playin’ Outside, Jenny of Rock Rose, and Diana of Sharing Nature’s Garden. Look! Scarves & cardigans in July! The …

August 05, 2011 Joy Creek Nursery While visiting Portland before the Seattle Garden Bloggers Fling, I was treated to nursery visits with Loree of Danger Garden. Fresh out of sun-baked, drought-stricken Austin, and plunked amid the lush greens—and chartreuse and burgundy—of Portland’s landscape, I’m ashamed to say I moaned and …

August 04, 2011 I’m baaack! Did you miss me? If you thought I’d gone AWOL from Austin’s summer from hell, well, you were right. I left early for the Garden Bloggers Fling last month, flying into Portland, Oregon, on July 20 in order to meet blogger friend, foliage fiend, and …

July 18, 2011 Moby, my ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (Agave ovatifolia), sails through hot summer days in part-sun/bright shade, perched above most of the garden in a terraced bed. It’s a ghostly white whale of a plant, about 5 feet in diameter, an iconic presence in my former garden and in …

July 16, 2011 It’s Foliage Follow-Up, a day of celebrating leafy beauty in the garden. After I took my photos, I noticed that they fell into one of two categories: the fierce, pointy leaves of yuccas, agaves, dyckias, and mangaves, and the fine texture of various grasses or grass-like plants …

July 15, 2011 Water lilies, Turk’s cap, sweet almond verbena, globemallow, catmint, Mexican oregano, hymenoxys, flame acanthus, Mexican honeysuckle, golden thryallis, plumbago, agastache, Salvia coccinea — all are blooming in my garden this Bloom Day. But you know what? After 31 days at or above 100F so far this summer, …

July 14, 2011 Looking for a flowering, sweet-scented shrub that can take the heat and drought dished out in a central Texas summer? Then try sweet almond verbena (Aloysia virgata), an Argentinian deciduous shrub with a strong vanilla almond fragrance. Mine grows at the base of our elevated deck, and …

July 12, 2011 When it doesn’t rain and temperatures soar into the 100s every day for weeks, the garden can look a bit…shall we say…parched. I recently responded by ripping out a mishmash of crispy plants, a lot of onesies and twosies brought along from my former garden, and replaced …

July 05, 2011 Austin area gardeners are fortunate to have a number of good independent nurseries, run by people who know our plants and local growing conditions, at which to shop. (Click on Nurseries in my sidebar for more info about and photo tours of those I frequent.) Now I …

Chimney Rock and Sliding Rock hikes near Asheville, NC, with my kids brought back fun memories from my childhood …