November 02, 2018
The garden beat goes on
April 20, 2010 Yesterday I wrote about the rhythm of seasonal flowering, and I’m witnessing it this week in my raised beds. The Texas bluebonnets are slightly past peak bloom, and they’re about to be succeeded by sweet-scented ‘Bath’s Pink’ dianthus, the periwinkle flowers with blue-gray foliage. As these tightly …
Gulf Coast penstemon, a springtime beauty
April 19, 2010 Gulf Coast penstemon (Penstemon tenuis) and Hinckley’s columbine One of the joys of a garden is observing its seasonal changes. Although evergreens are a necessary and beautiful way to ensure year-round structure, texture, and interest, the comings and goings of certain flowers, berries, leaves, and seedheads drum …
Deer-resistant Foliage Follow-Up
April 16, 2010 For April’s Foliage Follow-Up (a celebration of foliage on the day after Bloom Day), let’s see how the one-month-old garden in the deer-infested front yard is holding up. It’s mostly a foliage garden, after all. In case you’re wondering, by “deer-infested” I mean that a half-dozen to …
Texas wildflower Bloom Day
April 15, 2010 For Garden Bloggers Bloom Day in central Texas this month, nothing can outdo Mother Nature’s garden. (My own is shrouded in oak pollen.) So here are more pictures from last Saturday’s drive on RR 1323 and the Willow City Loop through the Hill Country. Above, Indian paintbrush …
Read This: Succulent Container Gardens
April 13, 2010 It’s the perfect time of year to refresh your container plantings or create new ones. Here in Austin, where long, sweltering summers are the norm, I’ve learned to plant only succulents or cacti in my containers in order to avoid being a slave to the hose all …
In the garden of good and evil, it’s all good
April 12, 2010 Anticipating the peak bloom of her roses, Lori of The Gardener of Good and Evil invited the Austin garden bloggers to a happy hour visit yesterday. Overcast, almost misty conditions enhanced the romance of her garden, which is billowy and pillowy with roses, flowering vines, and feathery …
In the garden of good and evil, it's all good
April 12, 2010 Anticipating the peak bloom of her roses, Lori of The Gardener of Good and Evil invited the Austin garden bloggers to a happy hour visit yesterday. Overcast, almost misty conditions enhanced the romance of her garden, which is billowy and pillowy with roses, flowering vines, and feathery …
Wildflower safari in the Texas Hill Country
April 11, 2010 Does this cow know how beautiful its Hill Country pasture is this spring? Fields so blue your teeth ache. Tender, new leaves so green they’ll break your heart. A magic carpet of Texas wildflowers. This was our quest yesterday as we drove the famed Willow City Loop …
Designing garden views
April 08, 2010 My back garden slopes down steeply from the house to the fence. Previous owners installed lovely rock retaining walls and beds, plus a stone stair that leads from the upper patio by the house to the mid-level patio around the pool. What I call the lower garden …
Spring fever!
April 07, 2010 When I’m not in the garden, I can’t stop looking out the window. So much is happening that I dare not look away lest I miss something, like the first Knock Out ‘Radsunny’ roses… …or the peak bloom of Shoshana’s irises… …or the raging orange ‘Tangerine Beauty’ …
Texas bluebonnet beauty
April 06, 2010 Azure carpets of Texas bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) on the roadsides are wowing central Texans this spring. I’ve never seen such a good show in my 16 years in Austin. In my own garden, a very small patch in a raised bed brings the show home and elevates …
Passalong lilac-hued iris
April 05, 2010 These beautiful but temperamental irises do not bloom every year. In times of drought, they dry up too and stubbornly refuse to set buds. But the rains this winter enticed them into glorious, ruffled bloom this spring, and I’m delighting in them again. If the friend who …
Mouse & Trowel Awards are back
April 05, 2010 The Mouse & Trowel Awards have returned, after a year’s hiatus, allowing readers once again to “show your favorite garden blogs a little love.” Dubbed the Mousies, they are the people’s choice awards of the garden-blogging world. Anyone can make nominations and vote, non-bloggers and bloggers alike …
Mouse & Trowel Awards are back
April 05, 2010 The Mouse & Trowel Awards have returned, after a year’s hiatus, allowing readers once again to “show your favorite garden blogs a little love.” Dubbed the Mousies, they are the people’s choice awards of the garden-blogging world. Anyone can make nominations and vote, non-bloggers and bloggers alike …
