Dining, dancing amid flowers on Field to Vase Dinner Tour
May 31, 2016 A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou may be pleasant enough. But add Crayola-bright fields of flowers, a big blue barn, tables adorned with festive bouquets, chef-made dishes, a western swing band, and the starry skies of the Texas Hill Country, and you have ...
I’m on Central Texas Gardener talking about water-saving gardens
February 05, 2016 I’m on Central Texas Gardener this week! Huge thanks to producer Linda Lehmusvirta and host Tom Spencer for having me on to talk about my new book. The show airs on KLRU, Austin’s PBS station, this Saturday at noon and 4 pm and again on Sunday at ...
Bottle trees, a Southern tradition that brightens the garden
January 13, 2016Writer and teacher Paula Panich visited my garden a few weeks ago, and if I hadn’t already known she was from California by way of Connecticut — i.e., not a Southerner — she gave it away when she asked what was the story with the blue bottles displayed ...
Autumn amble at New York Botanical Garden
October 24, 2014 After touring Wave Hill on October 11, my daughter and I took the train to the New York Botanical Garden. Although both NYBG and Wave Hill are located in the Bronx, mass transit between the two ate up some time, and we had tickets to a Broadway ...
Drive-By Gardens: Xeric, mass-planted garden replaces a lot of lawn
October 07, 2013 The lawn-gone trend is going strong, especially in Austin, where watering restrictions and the drought have galvanized even non-gardening homeowners to convert their thirsty landscapes into drought-tolerant planting beds. Here’s another one, which I spotted in the southwest Austin neighborhood of Covenant Estates. This lawn replacement relies ...
Cocktail party at Flora Grubb Gardens: San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling
August 08, 2013 The San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling wrapped up on June 30 with a cocktail party at Flora Grubb Gardens, a chic garden center named for its owner — and, yes, that’s really her name. Flora is a rock-star nursery owner, her image and her garden style recommendations ...
Display gardens at Sunset Publishing headquarters: San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling
July 22, 2013 Our 2nd stop on the 2nd day of the San Francisco Garden Bloggers Fling was the low-slung headquarters of Sunset Publishing Corp. in Menlo Park, where we toured Sunset’s display gardens. While central Texas is just east of the western U.S. region covered by Sunset magazine, the ...
Read This: Succulents Simplified
July 02, 2013 Succulents are a garden trend that shows no sign of slowing down. Easy to pot up for summer and tolerant of watering forgetfulness, they make the perfect seasonal accent even in freeze-prone climates. For those in mild-winter climates, a variety of succulents can be grown outside all ...
Lawn Gone! book available for pre-order
July 22, 2012 After a fall and winter of writing and compiling photos and a spring and summer of editing and proofreading, I’m thrilled to announce that my upcoming book, Lawn Gone! Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard, has a beautiful cover design and is now available for pre-order ...
Garden Designers Roundtable: Contrast textures to make a good garden better
June 26, 2012 Even the smallest vignettes benefit from strong contrasts of texture. Take this tabletop display, for example. The slick zinc tabletop contrasts with a nubby lace doily, and the spiny cactus contrasts with the smooth, ceramic pot. If you use design techniques to bring greater interest to your ...
Garden trend: Graffiti garden art
February 28, 2012 Got a wall or fence that keeps getting tagged with graffiti, defacing and devaluing your property? Take heart—you could be on the front end of a trend toward using graffiti art in the garden. I’ve spotted graffiti-decorated walls and planter boxes in Austin and Dallas over the ...