Late-winter mosey around the garden
January 31, 2025 The side garden — not the side with trash bins and potting bench but the far side, with a tree-hung chair half-hidden from the street — is a favorite destination of mine in winter. Tentacle-limbed live oaks gain even greater presence when the rest of the garden ...
Prepping for first bite of winter
January 05, 2025 Austin is finally prepping for our first hard freeze this winter, delayed past the average of late November or early December. I’m grateful for the extended lovely fall we’ve enjoyed. Now it’s time for a short rest — but not until after a mad rushing around to ...
Christmastime blooms
December 20, 2024 Mild, blue-sky December days are a Texan’s reward for enduring summer. Right now I’m happy to see giant leopard plant, aka tractor seat plant (Farfugium japonicum ‘Gigantea’), blooming its head off every time I step outside. Its big glossy leaves look like terrestrial lily pads and set off ...
Winter beauty at the Wildflower Center
January 30, 2024 It’s possumhaw berry season in Austin. The crimson berries of this deciduous native holly (Ilex decidua) are blazing at the edge of woodlands and in sunny gardens all over town, including at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. This one in particular wowed me last Saturday. I ...
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! ...
Neighbors save 11 acres from condo development, create a public nature park
January 27, 2022 As Texas’s population soars, many communities are feeling the growing pains of rapid development. Here in booming Austin that manifests as condos, condos, condos and traffic, traffic, traffic. But smaller towns also feel the pinch, not least in terms of lost green space. In Horseshoe Bay, a ...
Glowing front-yard gardens, plus Fearless Gardening winner
January 16, 2021 On twilight walks around the neighborhood I love coming to this house, the home of neighbor friends who deck out their front-yard garden with hanging globes of blue and white for Christmas every year. I’m in no hurry for them to take them down. The lights add ...
Winter garden flowers thrive in cool weather
January 30, 2020 Winter in my garden brings the sweet flowers of abutilon, or flowering maple. I used to have several different varieties, but harsher winters or drought killed many of them off. ‘Bartley Schwarz’ is not only a survivor but my favorite for its glowing, cantaloupe-colored flowers that dangle ...
Family Garden and berry-bright possumhaws at Wildflower Center
February 11, 2019 Continuing with my recent visit to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, let’s explore the Family Garden and see how it looks in late winter. Again, possumhaw holly (Ilex decidua) berries blaze bright red, alongside early blossoms of coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens). The galvanized steel cylinder is ...
Winter meadows and fiery possumhaws at Wildflower Center
February 09, 2019 Mexican plum and redbud may be blooming at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center by now. But last Sunday afternoon the gardens were still in the “grip” of an unusually mild winter. Flowers were few, but the tawny and russet hues of early February offer their own ...
Paperwhites and palmettos at Lady Bird Lake
January 09, 2019 A post-holiday hoof around Lady Bird Lake reveals some beautiful surprises, like a spring-fresh cluster of paperwhites in bloom. Inside the Pfluger Bridge Circle, designed by Christine Ten Eyck (my next Garden Spark speaker!)*… …I smiled to see this native palmetto playing a piano. What? Nah, it’s ...
Winter bees and flowers
January 08, 2019 Just because it’s winter doesn’t mean bees disappear. Warm winter days draw them back into the garden, where cool-season flowers lure them with nectar and pollen. Mahonia flowers in the winter here in Texas. This is ‘Marvel’, a new-to-me mahonia I’m trialing from Southern Living Plant Collection ...
Possumhaw berries blazing at winter’s end
February 26, 2018 It’s the in-between season in Austin, when Mexican plums and redbuds and daffodils color the twiggy landscape, but winter still lingers in bleached grasses, cut-back perennials, and piles of soggy leaves. Into the breach, the ripe berries of possumhaw holly (Ilex decidua) blaze a most unspringlike, cheery ...
It’s been a cold winter, but the garden’s still got it going on
February 14, 2018 Thank heavens for evergreens, grasses, yuccas, and structural features like stock-tank ponds, big containers, and low walls. After this withering, frostbitten winter, my garden would otherwise be flattened. Of course I’ve been moaning and groaning about the damage anyway. (Isn’t that what we gardeners do?) But taking ...
Fair grounds at Fareground food hall in downtown Austin
February 06, 2018 Twice last week I visited buzzed-about Fareground food hall on Congress Avenue in downtown Austin, killing time before shows at the Paramount Theater. I’ve yet to see Fareground in the daytime, but at night the softly lit landscaping and plaza sure are enticing. (The stairs and outer ...
Grassy scrims and yucca color for Foliage Follow-Up
January 16, 2018 As I write this, an icy wind is flinging plastic pots and flapping draped sheets that are supposed to be sheltering certain freeze-tender plants in my garden. All I will say about that is that this is not the winter I signed up for. Happily, most of ...
