Edibles, green roof, and playground at Mueller Community Gardens & Gaines Park
November 25, 2016 We spent Thanksgiving in the mixed-use, urban-infill, sustainably-designed Mueller neighborhood in east Austin, where my in-laws hosted us in their lovely new home. As always when we visit, I’m impressed by the park spaces and community amenities available to Mueller residents, and I fantasize about moving into ...
Roses, butterflies & garden goodness at Antique Rose Emporium
November 08, 2016 On Saturday my mom and I drove out to Brenham, Texas, for the Antique Rose Emporium‘s Fall Festival of Roses, where I was one of the day’s speakers. A gray sky spit rain on us during the 2-hour drive, but it held off as we strolled around ...
Roses, butterflies & garden goodness at Antique Rose Emporium
November 08, 2016 On Saturday my mom and I drove out to Brenham, Texas, for the Antique Rose Emporium‘s Fall Festival of Roses, where I was one of the day’s speakers. A gray sky spit rain on us during the 2-hour drive, but it held off as we strolled around ...
Lucinda’s Dia de los Muertos garden
November 01, 2016 My friend Lucinda Hutson celebrates Dia de los Muertos like no one else I know. Her colorful, Mexican-inspired home and garden in the Rosedale neighborhood of central Austin grows even more vibrant for Day of the Dead, and inside she stages elaborate table displays and beautiful altars ...
Visit to Quinta Mazatlan, birding, and Planta Nativa Festival
October 27, 2016 Texas is a big state, and living in the center of it means that whichever direction you travel, it’s a long drive to the state line. Last weekend, that meant a 5-hour drive to the Rio Grande Valley, where Texas shares a border with Mexico. My destination? ...
Urban meadow and security landscaping at Austin forensics center and police station
October 23, 2016 How many police stations have landscaping like this? I spotted this raised meadow while driving through East Austin recently and slammed on the brakes to get a better look. From the street — 812 Springdale Road, in the Govalle neighborhood — you see this along one side ...
High-altitude garden in bloom at Santa Fe Botanical Garden
August 22, 2016 Two weeks ago today we drove west on a spontaneously planned, cutting-it-close-with-the-first-day-of-school, two-week road trip through West Texas, northern New Mexico, and western Colorado. One of our early stops was Santa Fe, New Mexico, a beautiful old city we once regularly visited but hadn’t seen in 16 ...
Magical mosaics in the garden of Wouterina De Raad, Part 2: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
August 05, 2016 Yesterday I shared Part 1 of my visit to Wisconsin artist Wouterina De Raad’s mosaic sculpture garden, which was the final garden — and my favorite — on the recent Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling. Today I’ll end my Fling series with Part 2 about Wouterina‘s delightful, exploratory ...
Garden artistry at Wouterina De Raad’s Mosaic Sculpture Park, Part 1: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
August 04, 2016 Each year at Garden Bloggers Fling, there’s at least one garden that moves me deeply, that creates a lasting mood and feels like an extension of the gardener him- or herself. At this year’s Fling in Minneapolis, that garden was the creation of Wouterina De Raad. (As ...
Scenes from Minneapolis gardens, sightseeing, and bloggers: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
August 03, 2016 This is my 10th post about the recent Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling, and I have two more coming up that cover one very special garden. Even so, I won’t have shown you every garden we visited. There were just too many! But here are a few images ...
Noerenberg Memorial Gardens and Kelley-Carmichiel gardens: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
August 02, 2016 At the end of day one of the recent Garden Bloggers Fling in Minneapolis, we visited 3 gardens connected by the gardeners who tend them: Noerenberg Memorial Gardens; the home garden of Noerenberg’s horticultural supervisor and curator, Arla Carmichiel, and her husband, Steve Kelley; and the display ...
Inspired at Squire House Gardens: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
July 31, 2016 Our tour buses took us out of Minneapolis on the last day of the recent Garden Bloggers Fling — an annual event with 60+ garden bloggers touring Minneapolis this year — through St. Paul and on into charming Afton, Minnesota, where we visited nursery and gift shop ...
Elegant garden of St. Paul writer Marge Hols: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
July 29, 2016 A lovely Tudor-style home on St. Paul’s historic Summit Avenue, just down the block from the Minnesota Governor’s Mansion, was a stop on day three of the Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling. It’s the home of gardening columnist Marge Hols, who welcomed us and immediately set us loose ...
Como Park Conservatory and Japanese Garden: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
July 28, 2016 In the South we don’t have many conservatories, probably because our winters aren’t particularly bleak or cold. But I’ve visited a few on my travels to northern states, and on day three of the Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling, I got to see another one at Como Park ...
I went to the woods and saw Walden Road Garden: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
July 28, 2016 When you live on Walden Road and you’re creating a garden, you can do a lot worse than take inspiration from Thoreau. This woodsy, serene garden was on the Master Gardeners tour that we saw on day two of the Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling, held earlier this ...
Dynasty Drive flowers and bonus hosta garden: Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling
July 27, 2016 A garden tour within a garden tour was offered on day two of the Minneapolis Garden Bloggers Fling, held in mid-July. Bused to a half-dozen lovely private gardens on a local Master Gardeners tour (see my upcoming post about the Walden Road garden), at one point I ...
