October 17, 2017 Do you own or do marketing for a garden-related business? Would you like for garden bloggers — i.e., social media influencers — from across the U.S., Canada, and beyond to know about your products? I’m on the planning committee for Garden Bloggers Fling, an annual 3-day meetup …

October 16, 2017 At my alma mater in Houston last month (right after Hurricane Harvey), I appreciated the marriage of foliage and architecture at the Brochstein Pavilion, a remarkable structure and hub of student activity that didn’t exist when I was a student at Rice University. A hedge of tightly …

October 15, 2017 Although I’ve been to Dallas and its well-known public garden many times, until last weekend I’d never visited the botanical garden in nearby Fort Worth, just 45 minutes to the west. While not showy like Dallas Arboretum, Fort Worth Botanic Garden is a pleasant place to stroll …

October 14, 2017 I road-tripped up to Dallas/Fort Worth last weekend with a friend for two days of garden visiting and nursery shopping. The Garden Conservancy was hosting an Open Days tour in Fort Worth on Sunday, and my favorite garden turned out to be that of metal artist Wanda …

October 12, 2017 Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain! But the woman in front of the curtain? That’s Diana, my friend and fellow explorer last weekend at the annual Pumpkin Village at Dallas Arboretum. This year the Arboretum carries you off like a tornado to “The Wonderful …

October 05, 2017 It looks like a convention of Mary Poppinses passed through a rainbow over on Mueller neighborhood’s newly opened Aldrich Street. Presumably inspired by the Umbrella Sky Project in Águeda, Portugal, this public art display of colorful umbrellas suspended over a wide sidewalk makes a festive paseo for …

October 04, 2017 The first wave of migrating monarch butterflies has reached North Texas and will be fluttering through Austin and other parts of Central Texas by next week. Despite their seeming fragility, these tenacious creatures migrate each fall as far as 2,800 miles from the northern U.S. and southern …

September 29, 2017 The front garden by the house has undergone some major changes since we lost a tree last winter. But after some summer angst as formerly shaded foundation shrubs burned up, and some fixes, I’m feeling good about it again. Here’s how it looked before, with the live …

September 27, 2017 I’m not a beach person. I don’t enjoy lying in the sun, sweating on the sand, nor do I like to swim in the ocean. You don’t do any of that at Cannon Beach, in Oregon, which is one of the reasons I enjoy it so much …

September 25, 2017 A trip to Portland, Oregon, wouldn’t be complete without seeing the city’s luminous Japanese garden. During our mid-August visit, we had to try twice because the first time, on a Sunday afternoon, we simply could not find any parking, even after circling for a half hour. Even …

September 24, 2017 Sopping up a plateful of sausage gravy with fluffy, fist-sized biscuits at a picnic table outside of Pine State Biscuits, I glimpsed an open gate and profusion of plants just a dozen yards away, tucked behind a nearby building. We were in Portland, Oregon, on a mid-August …

September 23, 2017 While vacationing in Portland last month, we visited Lan Su Chinese Garden in downtown Portland. It was my third visit, and I find I enjoy it more each time I see it. Chinese gardens have had to grow on me, so different do they seem from the …

September 22, 2017 Every three years I manage a trip to Portland, and each time ( and ) I’ve been fortunate to visit the garden of my friend Loree Bohl — fellow spiky plant lover, the prolific blogger of Danger Garden, and a collector-gardener with an incredibly artistic and meticulous …

September 20, 2017 All you succulent junkies, listen up. If you love succulents or want to learn how to grow them, two newly released books by succulent-gardening trailblazers Debra Lee Baldwin and Robin Stockwell need to be at the top of your must-read list. Let’s start with Designing with Succulents …