
Austin homes on 2025 Tribeza Interiors Tour, Part 3
February 04, 2025 Let’s explore the last 5 homes on the 10th annual Tribeza Interiors Tour, a tour of Austin homes that shows off the work of interior designers. This is part 3 of my coverage of the late January tour. (Click for part 1 and part 2 if you ...

A limestone entry walk with agaves and yucca
January 28, 2025 A front garden with a limestone entry walk and terracing caught my eye in Austin’s Tarrytown neighborhood last weekend. Whale’s tongue agaves, both in-ground and potted, and a shaggy-trunked beaked yucca say hello as you arrive, drawing you toward the steps and inner garden of sedge, giant ...

Fall at Denver Botanic Gardens: Perennials, conifers, and Rock Alpine Garden
January 09, 2025 After exploring the Birds and Bees Walk at Denver Botanic Gardens, I found bees hard at work among fall-flowering asters and other perennials. This is Part 4 from my visit to DBG in late September. The asters were lit up in the strong morning sunlight. The bees ...

Fall at Denver Botanic Gardens: PlantAsia and Birds and Bees Walk
January 08, 2025 Pines with fragrant needles and cool shade welcome you into June’s PlantAsia garden (who’s June, I wonder?) at Denver Botanic Gardens. This is Part 3 of my tour from my visit in late September. June’s PlantAsia A Chinese pavilion offers a cool spot to rest under the ...

Fall at Denver Botanic Gardens: Entry and Water-Smart Garden
January 06, 2025 As much of the country, including Texas, tucks into flannels and wool socks to stay warm this week, let’s float back in time to the golden days of a Colorado autumn. In late September last year, I made two visits to Denver Botanic Gardens, one of my ...

Lori’s blue fantasia garden
January 04, 2025 I popped over to my friend Lori Daul‘s house on Thursday, craving one more garden visit before the Arctic barrels down to Austin and brings our long growing season to an end. At Lori’s, fountains still trickle, ponds reflect sky, and plants sprawl luxuriantly. The garden echoes ...

Tobin Land Bridge gives wildlife and people safe passage
January 02, 2025 Before the Tobin Land Bridge was built in Phil Hardberger Park in San Antonio, deer, bobcats, coyotes, armadillos, and other four-legged wildlife had to dash Frogger-like across 6 lanes of traffic to access all 330 acres of habitat. Wurzbach Parkway kept people from exploring half the parkland ...

Drive-By Gardens: Diamond path and gravity-defying live oaks
December 21, 2024 This is really a walk-by garden post. I spotted this interesting path during a neighborhood stroll. Square pavers make a zigzagging front walk from the curb through a garden bed and across the lawn. As I took in the scene, I felt I was being watched. Hello, ...

Sculpted berms at Bouldin Castle inspired by land art and Kauai
November 04, 2024 If you’ve ever driven past Bouldin Castle in South Austin, you probably hit the brakes and craned your neck for a second look. Crenellated towers, a windowed turret, layered limestone, and wattle made of shaggy cedar posts give this former Catholic church — built in 1940 and ...

Falling for SummerHome Garden, Part 2
October 21, 2024 In my last post I shared the genesis of SummerHome Garden, a privately owned garden and public park in Denver’s Washington Park neighborhood. I visited in late September and spent a couple of hours early one morning taking pictures. The garden was so beautiful that I couldn’t ...

Fall at SummerHome Garden, Part 1
October 19, 2024 When I told gardening friends I’d be in Denver in late September, many urged me to visit SummerHome Garden. It was already on my list. SummerHome has had glowing media attention since its creation in 2020, and I’d read about it in Visionary and Shrouded in Light ...

Gillian Mathews’ garden for outdoor lounging and dining
September 18, 2024 I’ve wanted to visit the Seattle garden of Gillian Mathews, former owner of Ravenna Gardens, since reading about it at Danger Garden and in the Seattle Times. Designed by Richard Hartlage of Land Morphology (whose personal garden I recently visited), its modern style, lush plantings, and original ...

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 ...

The elegant Pepper Garden with a water view
September 07, 2024 By lunchtime, we’d already visited four gardens on the bonus Seattle day of the Puget Sound Fling. Three more to go! Our next stop was an elegant home right on Lake Washington, with welcoming owners Vangie and Daniel Pepper. Let’s start in the back garden and work ...

Playfulness and planters in the garden of Richard Hartlage
September 06, 2024 One garden I was eager to see during the Puget Sound Fling (on the bonus day in Seattle) was that of Richard Hartlage, head of design firm Land Morphology. I interviewed Richard years ago for an article in Garden Design and follow his work. To my delight, ...

Floating on an evergreen cloud in the garden of Tanya Bednarski
September 04, 2024 When two neighbors go all-in on their gardens, it makes for great street energy. Such is the case with two of the gardens on the Puget Sound Fling‘s bonus day in Seattle. Last time I showed you Bonnie Berk’s terraced hillside garden. Today let’s explore the garden ...