Gardens on Tour 2013: Placid Place Garden
May 14, 2013 The homeowner-designed Placid Place Garden, located in north-central Austin’s Highland Village neighborhood, was the third we visited on the Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour last Saturday. While the overall design was too unstructured for my taste, I did admire several features, including this double-arbor entry gate into ...
Gardens on Tour 2013: Westridge Drive Garden
May 14, 2013 The second garden I visited on the Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour last Saturday was, like the first, located in south Austin’s Barton Hills neighborhood. The contemporary home on Westridge Drive, which is embraced by a wood of native trees and understory plants (many invasive exotics have ...
Gardens on Tour 2013: Kathy Cove Garden
May 13, 2013 Garden tour season in central Texas kicked off last Saturday with the annual Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour, which this year featured five Austin gardens in which native plants play a predominant role. I toured with three other bloggers — Cat from The Whimsical Gardener, Shirley from ...
Springtime visit to the Garden of Good and Evil
May 03, 2013 Last weekend Lori, a gardener in southwest Austin who blogs at The Gardener of Good and Evil, hosted a meet-up of local garden bloggers. It was my second visit. I’d seen her lovely garden three years ago and posted about it then. Lori loves roses, and in ...
Lucinda Hutson’s purple cottage, cantina garden, and Viva Tequila!
April 24, 2013Lucinda Hutson’s festive home and garden in AustinMy friend Lucinda Hutson invited me over to her purple cottage on Sunday to see her angel’s trumpets in bloom, plus all the rest of her exuberant, flowery garden. Lighting up her quiet Rosedale neighborhood street like a fiesta in full ...
Lucinda Hutson's purple cottage, cantina garden, and Viva Tequila!
April 24, 2013Lucinda Hutson’s festive home and garden in Austin My friend Lucinda Hutson invited me over to her purple cottage on Sunday to see her angel’s trumpets in bloom, plus all the rest of her exuberant, flowery garden. Lighting up her quiet Rosedale neighborhood street like a fiesta in ...
Blazing Indian blanket and more at the Wildflower Center, part 3
April 23, 2013 So many wildflowers were in bloom last Friday at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center that it’s taken three posts for me to show you everything. Today I’m leading with the eye-popping hotness of a swath of Indian blanket, also known as firewheel (Gaillardia pulchella). Can’t you ...
Blossoming spring morning at the Wildflower Center, part 1
April 21, 2013 April is high season for wildflowers in Texas, and if you can’t get out for a country drive to admire them in meadows and fields, an Austinite can always get a fix at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I stopped by for a wildflower stroll on ...
Whimsical Westview Road garden on Austin’s Funky Chicken Coop Tour
March 31, 2013 No, I’m not looking for a Mildred or Louise to eat bugs and lay eggs in my garden. But I couldn’t resist buying a ticket to Austin’s 5th annual Funky Chicken Coop Tour after watching a recent Central Texas Gardener episode (below) about Dani and Gary Moss’s ...
Spring color and edibles at San Antonio Botanical Garden
March 18, 2013 Two weekends ago my family and I kicked off spring break with a fun day trip to San Antonio and a visit to San Antonio Botanical Garden. We were greeted with a crayon box of annual color in these containers just inside the entry. Geraniums, nasturtiums, pansies, ...
Winter into spring at the Wildflower Center
February 20, 2013 I took a fire-wise landscaping class at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center last week, and I arrived early enough for a leisurely stroll around the gardens. The sunshine and blooming Mexican plums promised spring, but a chill in the air spoke of winter. By the time ...