November 02, 2018
Join my class and tour my garden on May 4
January 23, 2019 Did you ever wish you could tour a designer’s garden with her or him and learn why they made the design choices they did, or how they solved commonplace problems? Do you long to know more about the plants they grow: how much water they need, how …
Winter hike at Pedernales Falls
January 21, 2019 A cloudless blue sky overhead, white rock and clear pools of water to explore, and evergreen trees all around. This is winter in central Texas. The family and I recently drove out to Pedernales Falls State Park, about an hour west of Austin, to scramble among the …
Bloggers, let’s tour mile-high gardens at Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
January 18, 2019 Garden Bloggers Fling, the annual meetup and 3-1/2-day garden tour for garden bloggers, will be hosted a mile above sea level this summer in exciting Denver, Colorado! The tour dates are June 13-16, and registration opened today. Because the event has a limited number of spots, I …
Unusual black deer in my neighborhood
January 16, 2019 Have you ever seen a black deer? Here in my Northwest Hills neighborhood in Austin, I’ll see one from time to time, adults and fawns. I photographed this black doe from my car yesterday. Online sources say these are melanistic deer, producing an excess of melanin, and …
My article on urban farm gardeners appears in Country Gardens
January 14, 2019 It’s a treat to open the mailbox in the middle of winter and find a spring-y looking magazine inside. The Early Spring 2019 issue of Country Gardens arrived over the weekend, and even more exciting for me, I’m one of the issue’s contributors! My article is called …
Streetside gardens, colorful murals on Austin’s South Congress Ave
January 12, 2019 South Congress Avenue, SoCo, a street of eclectic shops and restaurants just south of downtown that epitomizes “weird,” welcoming Austin and converts tourists into residents. Fewer and fewer of those shops remain now that Austin has grown so expensive, but it’s still a playful, appealing, and increasingly …
Paperwhites and palmettos at Lady Bird Lake
January 09, 2019 A post-holiday hoof around Lady Bird Lake reveals some beautiful surprises, like a spring-fresh cluster of paperwhites in bloom. Inside the Pfluger Bridge Circle, designed by Christine Ten Eyck (my next Garden Spark speaker!)*… …I smiled to see this native palmetto playing a piano. What? Nah, it’s …
Winter bees and flowers
January 08, 2019 Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean bees disappear. Warm winter days draw them back into the garden, where cool-season flowers lure them with nectar and pollen. Mahonia flowers in the winter here in Texas. This is ‘Marvel’, a new-to-me mahonia I’m trialing from Southern Living Plant Collection …
Saw art I saw in Salado
January 04, 2019 Have you ever seen such a spectacular arrangement of saws? Driving through Salado, Texas, just before Christmas, I spotted this saw…wreath?…on a red barn door and yanked the car over to get a better look. Twenty-three rusty, old handsaws spiral around a central table saw blade. How …
Announcing 2019 Garden Spark speaker lineup
January 01, 2019 Season 3 of Garden Spark kicks off in 2019 with 3 terrific speakers and a change of location, due to high demand, that will allow more people to attend! The new location is an event space in northwest Austin at Hwy 183 and MoPac, just minutes from …
Happy New Year wishes and gratuitous Cosmo pics
December 31, 2018 As you ring in the new year this evening, I am wishing you a happy year of gardening and garden visiting in 2019. May you have just enough rain, plenty of sunshine, and a garden of beautiful plants to enjoy! My gardening buddy Cosmo sends you his New …
Joy to the Weird: Austin’s 37th and 35th Street Christmas lights
December 25, 2018 Merry Christmas, Joy to the Weird, and festive holiday greetings to you from Austin! Last night, on Christmas Eve, my family and I joined curious throngs of people walking and cruising along W. 37th Street, with a jog down Home Lane and over to W. 35th Street, …
Dog playtime at Red Bud Isle
December 18, 2018 Playing among cypress knees and gnarled roots at Red Bud Isle? Yep, it’s a dog’s life. Our good boy Cosmo enjoys off-leash playtime at Red Bud Isle in West Austin, cavorting at this beautiful point along Lady Bird Lake where a bald cypress clings to shore …
Moonstruck and aglow at Wildflower Center’s Luminations
December 10, 2018 Under a fingernail sliver of moon, we strolled quiet garden paths illuminated with hundreds of glowing luminarias, ultraviolet uplighting on trees, and the occasional white moon light at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center last night. The annual holiday event runs for four nights, but following two …
