November 02, 2018
Playfulness and planters in the garden of Richard Hartlage

September 6, 2024

Playfulness and planters in the garden of Richard Hartlage
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Colorful fall at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Colorful fall at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

Before the big freeze I went to see fall color at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center on a beautiful Sunday afternoon …
Water-saving Greenway Street Garden: Austin Open Day Tour

Water-saving Greenway Street Garden: Austin Open Day Tour

Reducing runoff and erosion in a sloping yard like this is challenging when you have mature trees because you can’t just regrade the whole lot without disturbing or covering their expansive roots …
Otherworldly Creek Show lights up Waller Creek through Nov. 17

Otherworldly Creek Show lights up Waller Creek through Nov. 17

We trekked downtown yesterday evening for the opening night of Creek Show, an annual light-art installation along Waller Creek, which is being developed as a chain of parks and walking trails called Waterloo Greenway …
The happily-ever-after Berger Street Garden: Austin Open Day Tour

The happily-ever-after Berger Street Garden: Austin Open Day Tour

This garden is a great example of how to reduce your turf grass by adding low-water groundcovers like sedge and no-water patios, while still growing plenty of wildlife-attracting native and adapted plants and making the garden a place for easy outdoor living — all on a budget …
November walk at Lady Bird Lake

November walk at Lady Bird Lake

A perfect fall day calls for a walk around Lady Bird Lake, so on Sunday there I was, at Lou Neff Point, viewing Austin’s mushrooming skyline and the towering Jenga building …
Day of the Dead at Lucinda Hutson's casita and garden

Day of the Dead at Lucinda Hutson’s casita and garden

In early November each year, Austin writer Lucinda Hutson celebrates Day of the Dead, a Mexican holiday for remembering and honoring deceased loved ones. Decorating her Rosedale home — her purple casita, as she calls it — and Mexican-style garden with colorful flowers, food, tequila bottles, skeleton decor, and her …
A city park floating on air: Klyde Warren Park in Dallas

A city park floating on air: Klyde Warren Park in Dallas

A remarkable green space floats overhead, literally flashing before your eyes, as you commute or pass through downtown Dallas. Built above 3 blocks of the Woodall Rodgers Freeway, Klyde Warren Park is a remarkable green roof that has become a beloved public park …
Celebrating life at Dia de los Muertos parade

Celebrating life at Dia de los Muertos parade

November 01, 2019 For more than a decade I’ve attended Austin’s annual Day of the Dead parade, Viva la Vida, which this year took place on October 26. For newcomers, Day of the Dead is easily confused with Halloween because of all the skull imagery and skeleton face paint. But …
Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween! I hope you have a spooky and fun night! …
Chinoiserie enchantment at Chandor Gardens, part 2

Chinoiserie enchantment at Chandor Gardens, part 2

Given 3-1/2 acres of cow pasture, it turns out you can do quite a lot with it. Douglas Chandor created an English-Chinese garden in his North Texas cow pasture in the 1930s through early 1950s …
Chandor Gardens, née White Shadows, a hidden gem in North Texas, part 1

Chandor Gardens, née White Shadows, a hidden gem in North Texas, part 1

White Shadows — the name evokes romance and mystery — seems wholly appropriate for the dappled-shade garden surrounding a pale-gray house in the small Texas town of Weatherford, 30 miles west of Fort Worth …
Leaf nursery opens a North Austin location

Leaf nursery opens a North Austin location

North Austin gardeners have cause to celebrate the recent arrival of Leaf Landscape Supply, which for years operated only out of South Austin but has now taken over the old Countryside Nursery location on Pond Springs Road …
Yellow spider lilies at peak and agave weevil death

Yellow spider lilies at peak and agave weevil death

My yellow spider lilies (Lycoris aurea) are at peak bloom. Every flower has opened and seems filled with golden sunlight. They thrill me every time I look though my office window or step out onto the back patio …
Peanuts gang at Dallas Arboretum pumpkin patch

Peanuts gang at Dallas Arboretum pumpkin patch

Oh, good grief! It’s the Great Pumpkin, and Dallas Arboretum has invited us all to join Linus, Charlie Brown, and the Peanuts gang in the most sincere pumpkin patch to be found …