Living on the edge in the Livingston Garden
September 11, 2024 I wish I knew how steep this garden is, and how many steps I climbed while exploring it. It’s a leg workout for sure. On the bonus day of the Puget Sound Fling in July, we visited Millie Livingston’s Seattle garden. At nearly 2 acres, the garden ...
Winding my way through Windcliff, part 1
August 25, 2024 Seeing Windcliff, the private garden of plantsman Dan Hinkley and architect Robert Jones, was a huge draw on the Puget Sound Fling tour. I read and reviewed Dan’s book Windcliff a couple years ago and hoped I might be able to visit the garden one day. And ...
A woodland art collector’s garden on Vashon Island
August 02, 2024 While touring the Carhart Garden at the Puget Sound Fling last month, I met one of the owners, Mary Carhart, who upon learning I was from Texas enthusiastically told me that she is from Texas too. Decades ago, she and husband Whit moved to Washington for work ...
Love letter to Puget Sound Fling, starting with Halstead-Robinson Garden
July 28, 2024 Every year since 2008, I’ve been lucky enough to attend the annual Garden Fling, a gathering of bloggers, Instagrammers, YouTubers, and other gardeners on social media, held in a different city each year, where for 3-1/2 days we tour gardens, socialize, get a flavor for a new ...
More faux bois at San Antonio River Walk and Witte Museum
June 14, 2024 I went on a faux bois safari in San Antonio in April, hunting down all the faux bois — locally known as trabajo rústico — that I could find in one day. And I found a LOT. Check out my faux bois post here. But there’s far ...
A garden with your coffee at Cosmic Saltillo
February 24, 2024 For a few years, I’ve been wanting to visit Cosmic, a coffee shop and beer garden in South Austin, mainly for its garden-like landscaping (featured on Central Texas Gardener). But I just haven’t made it down there yet. Then last year, I heard about a new Cosmic ...
Jenny Rose Carey’s charming Northview Garden, part 1
November 05, 2023 It was a soggy late-September midday at the Philadelphia Area Fling when we visited author and horticulturist Jenny Rose Carey‘s garden, Northview Garden, in Montgomery County, Pennsylvania. My bus of 50 (garden bloggers, Instagrammers, and YouTubers) was invited first to have a sit-down lunch in the carriage ...
Running through Marathon, Texas
September 03, 2023 On the way home from a trip to far West Texas in late July, my friend and I swung through tiny Marathon, Texas, for lunch. Fifty miles east of Marfa and 50 miles north of Big Bend National Park, Marathon is known as the gateway to remote ...
Michael Eason’s desert garden retreat
August 14, 2023 While in West Texas a couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of visiting designer and author Michael Eason‘s garden in Alpine. Michael had lined up some wonderful gardens for me to visit there, ones that he’d designed, but it was nice to see his own personal ...
Meeting artist Julie Speed at her Marfa studio
August 10, 2023 Marfa is an oasis for minimalist art in West Texas, despite the town’s tiny size (population 1,750) and remoteness from, well, just about anywhere. A friend and I road-tripped there two weeks ago, and instead of pilgrimaging to see Donald Judd’s minimalist concrete boxes (maybe next time), ...
Fall foliage, falls, and food in and around Asheville
November 15, 2022 Looking Glass Falls near Brevard, NC I love fall and seeing the trees change color. Since autumn color in Texas rarely offers more than a faint blush or tinge of yellow, I’ll travel far to see a good show. But it’s tricky when you’re making reservations 6 ...
Ojos y Manos at Santa Fe Botanical Garden
September 21, 2022 The Ojos y Manos: Eyes and Hands Garden hadn’t opened the first time I visited Santa Fe Botanical Garden. So during my return visit last month, I was happy to be able to explore it. (Here’s Part 1 of my recent visit.) Ojos y Manos, an educational ...
A garden on wheels and colorful decor convert driveway into patio garden
August 03, 2022 When you arrive at a purple Victorian-style house on a Rainbow Row, with a dozen planetary-painted bowling balls tucked amid foundation ferns and coleus, accented by jewel-toned bottles on a bottle tree — well, you know you’re in for a tour of a fearless color-lover’s garden. Such ...
Kicking off Madison Fling: People, badgers, barns, and a bountiful rooftop garden
July 04, 2022 Farm country scenery at the Flower Factory near Madison In late June I joined approximately 50 garden bloggers, Instagrammers, podcasters, and YouTubers in picturesque Madison, Wisconsin, for the 13th annual Garden Bloggers Fling. After a COVID hiatus of two years, and a heroic display of patience, stamina, ...
Wildflower Center abloom in early April
April 23, 2022 Claret cup cactus flowering at the top of the Wildflower Center tower I’m overdue for a visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center — and it’s only been two weeks since I was there! But a lot happens in April and May. What was blooming two ...
Exploring Austin’s Sparky Park mosaic wall
March 02, 2021 At Austin’s Sparky Park, craggy, curved walls of karst limestone and blue slag glass display mosaics of seashells, ceramic tile, petrified wood, and other found objects, all fashioned into fantastical trees and solar systems. Rock arches connect turret towers bejeweled with blue and silver gazing globes, creating ...
