Twilight in Cat’s garden
August 29, 2023 A late-summer evening in my friend Cat‘s canyon-side garden is serene and lovely, as twilight hides the summer scorch all Texans are seeing in our gardens right now. This blistering summer has taught us to be crepuscular, more active at twilight, like deer. Cat knows how to ...
Zilker Garden lights up with neon, costumes for Surreal Garden
April 12, 2023 These flowers are watching you If you enjoy seeing a familiar garden with a twist of surreality, humor, and neon art, the Surreal Garden event at Zilker Botanical Garden is for you. And for me! I attended last year’s inaugural event and happily returned this year. The ...
Flowers going up and coming down
April 03, 2023 The first hummingbird appeared last weekend, zooming under the dangling red flowers of soap aloes. No surprise there. Those aloes put out quite the welcome mat for hummers. The spiderwort has had a good run — here’s a volunteer by the covered porch, looking pretty — but ...
Spikes and springtime
March 22, 2023 Spiderwort (Tradescantia occidentalis), a self-sowing native and a springtime beauty, continues to color my shady spaces purple. Its bee-feeding flowers open at dawn and close in the early afternoon, except on cool, cloudy days, when they may stay open all day. More flower spikes line the raised ...
Late-winter flora and fauna on my 17th blogiversary
February 14, 2023 ‘Fireworks’ gomphrena gone to seed On Valentine’s Day 2006 I hit publish for my very first blog post. Back then I saw blogging as a way to document my garden through the seasons and to join the online conversation about gardening in Austin. Boy, was it ever! ...
One-of-a-kind design on the 2023 Tribeza Interiors Tour, Part 2
January 26, 2023 I’m so glad Austin’s excellent Tribeza Interiors Tour is back after a 2-year pandemic hiatus. On Sunday’s tour day, I managed to see all 7 of the featured houses, plus squeeze in a picnic lunch courtesy of my touring partner, in the 5 hours allotted to the ...
Color-saturated homes on 2023 Tribeza Interiors Tour, Part 1
January 25, 2023 A pink front door and chromatic rug make a cheerful entry at Genie Norris’s house The quiet season for gardening makes the perfect season to focus on interiors — and to attend Austin’s annual Tribeza Interiors Tour. After a two-year pandemic hiatus, the tour resumed last Sunday, ...
Layers of natural beauty, predators and prey, in Julia Lucey art
January 19, 2023 I’m in love with the enchanting art of California artist Julia Lucey, who’s currently exhibiting her mixed media collages at Austin’s Wally Workman Gallery. I went to see them on Tuesday and stood enraptured before each one, watching as hidden details revealed themselves amid ravishing colors and ...
Zilker Tree spin on Christmas Eve
December 26, 2022 The week leading up to Christmas Day was a whirlwind of holiday gatherings, eating, drinking, and merry-making with friends and family, for which I’m deeply grateful. On a quieter Christmas Eve we visited the Zilker Holiday Tree, which has been lighting up Zilker Park just south of ...
Enjoying fall color and a mellow garden
December 07, 2022 By the time I hang red Christmas balls from the agave’s spines, the Japanese maple finally blushes red too. Fall comes late to Central Texas, but I’ll take it, even at Christmastime. Last week was peak color for the Acer palmatum. Today, shriveled tan leaves cling to ...
Exploring Portal Potty and more at Creek Show 2022
November 20, 2022 A chilly drizzle on Friday couldn’t keep me from seeing Waterloo Greenway’s Creek Show, an “annual display of illuminated art” along the banks of downtown Austin’s Waller Creek. I go every year with family or friends to explore the creative light sculptures. Last year’s Creek Show abandoned ...
Cynthia Deegan’s free-spirited, collected home and garden
November 01, 2022 The mossy green doors of Cynthia Deegan’s milagro-spangled garden gate opened to me again a week or so ago, when she generously invited me and Garden Spark speaker Teri Speight to come on over. What a treat to follow up our visit to Lucinda’s garden with Cynthia’s! ...
Lucinda’s Day of the Dead altars, a celebration of departed loved ones
October 30, 2022 Austin icon Lucinda Hutson‘s festive garden is always a joy to visit. But for the Mexican holiday Day of the Dead, she pulls out all the stops in her decorating. Smiling skeletons dangle from trees, gates, umbrellas, and the front porch. At night, purple lights give an ...
Native plant landscaping at ACC Highland Campus, the new home of Central Texas Gardener
October 26, 2022 Teri Speight doing a Central Texas Gardener studio taping Last week, when author Teri Speight was in Austin to give a Garden Spark talk, I accompanied her to a taping at the new Central Texas Gardener studio at Austin PBS. Producer Linda Lehmusvirta had announced CTG’s move ...
Field of Light by Bruce Munro glows at the Wildflower Center
October 12, 2022 Moonrise over Field of Light at the Wildflower Center Silhouetted black trees under a nearly full Hunter’s Moon last Saturday gave a unique Central Texas flavor to British artist Bruce Munro‘s light installation, Field of Light, at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. I’d purchased tickets for ...
Have we outlasted the heat-wave summer?
August 31, 2022 What a summer this has been for Austin. Hot as Hades, rainless and parched for months and months. And then, finally, flooding rains in mid-August drenched parts of the city — I got 4.75 inches over a few days, although friends in South and West Austin got ...
