November 02, 2018
Make a cinderblock wall planter
March 07, 2011 A two-week frenzy of outdoor projects has accompanied the first stirrings of spring here in Austin. This weekend I completed a project I began in January: a succulent wall planter made of cinderblocks, inspired by a photo I saw at Apartment Therapy of a project created by …
Euphorbia euphoria
March 06, 2011 After admiring ‘Blackbird’ euphorbia on several West Coast garden blogs, and unable to find it locally, I purchased three small plants from Plant Delights last September and planted them in my xeric raised beds. Two immediately wilted and died. The third, situated in bright shade next to …
A bad case of spring fever in my Austin garden
February 28, 2011 Winter has ceded ground in Austin, and I’ve caught a bad case of spring fever. The garden and I are showing distinct symptoms. What are they, you wonder? Well, doctor, I’m seeing… New plants! This is the worst symptom of spring fever: the unchecked buying of new …
Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve: Healing “the sorriest piece of land”
J. David Bamberger purchased the ranch in 1969 to fulfill a lifelong dream of restoring habitat to “the sorriest piece of land” he could find in the Texas Hill Country …
Selah, Bamberger Ranch Preserve: Healing "the sorriest piece of land"
February 27, 2011 Chaperone duty during my kids’ school field trips over the years has taken me to some interesting places. But last Monday it got me in on a private tour of the esteemed Selah, Bamberger Ranch, a privately owned nature preserve of 5,500 acres in the Texas Hill …
Read This: The Complete Kitchen Garden
February 25, 2011 After writing my Garden Designers Roundtable post about vegetable garden design, I picked up a book recently sent to me for review: The Complete Kitchen Garden: An Inspired Collection of Garden Designs & 100 Seasonal Recipes by Ellen Ecker Ogden, a Vermont gardener, author, and cofounder of …
Garden Designers Roundtable: Vegetable Garden Design
February 22, 2011 French potager, Allen Centennial Gardens, Madison, Wisconsin Today Garden Designers Roundtable celebrates the release of The Edible Front Yard: The Mow-Less, Grow-More Plan for a Beautiful, Bountiful Garden by Roundtable blogger Ivette Soler of The Germinatrix. How are we celebrating? By writing about edibles from a design …
SXSWi Panel on Blogging and Community
February 20, 2011 I’m excited to announce that I’ll be speaking at South by Southwest Interactive (SXSWi) Festival on a panel titled “Building Community in a Blogger-Eat-Blogger World,” on Sunday, March 13, at 3:30 pm. Austin American-Statesman reporter and food blogger Addie Broyles (pictured at center) invited me to join …
Still Digging: Celebrating five years of blogging
February 17, 2011 On my 5th blogiversary, I’d just like to say thank you. To you, dear reader. Your interest, your comments, and our shared garden dreams inspire me to keep on Digging. All material © 2006-2011 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited …
Foliage Follow-Up: Winter moving into spring
February 16, 2011 February 14 marks the transition between winter and spring in central Texas gardens. Around Valentine’s Day, Austin gardeners do their big cut-back of summer- and fall-blooming perennials and grasses in preparation for spring growth. We may still get a couple of freezes (the last average freeze date …
Prune cast-iron plant to bring back evergreen beauty
February 15, 2011 Does your cast-iron plant look ratty? I have several large clumps of Aspidistra elatior in my shady garden, and their frayed and browned leaf tips were really bugging me. So yesterday I pulled on my gloves, got out my hand pruners, and went to work on them …
Valentine shrub for Valentine’s Day
February 14, 2011 Ever optimistic about trying a cool new plant, even after the drubbing my garden recently received from Old Man Winter, I planted this Valentine shrub (Eremophila maculata ‘Valentine’) in one of my stock tanks this morning. This mounding desert plant is evergreen, hardy to 15 F, and …
Valentine shrub for Valentine's Day
February 14, 2011 Ever optimistic about trying a cool new plant, even after the drubbing my garden recently received from Old Man Winter, I planted this Valentine shrub (Eremophila maculata ‘Valentine’) in one of my stock tanks this morning. This mounding desert plant is evergreen, hardy to 15 F, and …
Sad agave after the freeze
February 11, 2011 Have you ever seen a sadder agave? Freeze damage has occurred to my potted variegated American agave before, but never this bad. Here’s the same plant last May, recovering from lower-limb amputations after the worst winter we’d seen in 20 years. By October of last year, it …
