Heronswood pilgrimage: House garden and formal garden
August 20, 2024 Two acclaimed gardens made by plantsman, plant explorer, and author Dan Hinkley (and his partner, Robert Jones) were two of the biggest attractions at the Puget Sound Fling in July. While I’d read about Windcliff and Heronswood, I’d never visited either. Day 3 of the Fling was ...
Pre-dinner stroll around Lakewold Gardens in Puget Sound
August 13, 2024 Day 2 of the Puget Sound Fling last month ended at Lakewold Gardens, a 10-acre estate garden in Lakewood, Washington. The Fling banquet dinner was to be held on the terrace, but first we had time to explore the grounds. A brass quartet, including co-planner Camille Paulsen‘s ...
Camille Paulsen’s Tahoma-flora garden
August 11, 2024 One of my favorite gardens on the Fling tour last month was that of Camille and Dirk Paulsen. As one of the co-planners of the Puget Sound Fling, Camille not only devoted a year of volunteer effort to bring Flingers to her region, but she managed to ...
A taste of Italy in a Puget Sound garden
August 07, 2024 The first two private gardens on Day 2 of the Puget Sound Fling last month were neighbors, each gardening intensively but in very different styles. It was fun to explore the two gardens side-by-side and imagine the owners bonding over a shared love of plants. Let’s start ...
Hopping around Froggsong Gardens
August 03, 2024 Lunch on the first day of the Puget Sound Fling was held on beautiful Vashon Island at Froggsong Gardens, a private home with a 5-acre estate garden that can be rented out as a wedding/event venue. Needless to say, they were well set up to host 100 ...
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 ...
Contemporary re-use in landscaping at San Antonio’s Pearl
June 18, 2024 The old Pearl Brewery in San Antonio is today a shopping/dining complex along the River Walk, with green, landscaped public plazas. It’s called Pearl. We made time to poke around at Pearl during an April visit to the Alamo City. (Here’s Part 1 of that visit.) Historic ...
Deborah Hornickel’s modern-formal garden invites outdoor lounging
May 28, 2024 Deborah Hornickel credits her garden’s timeless good looks and livability to her good friend James David, a hugely influential designer formerly of Austin with a showpiece personal garden and a revered boutique/nursery called Gardens. (He and partner Gary Peese now call Santa Fe home.) Thanks to James’s ...
Tanglewild Gardens merges passion for daylilies with tropical wow factor
May 23, 2024 Every time I visit Tanglewild Gardens, an Asian-influenced, daylily-hybridizing, future-wedding-venue garden in North Austin, I’m impressed by the energy and ambition of its owners. Skottie O’Mahony and Jeff Breitenstein, 13 years into the making of Tanglewild, continue to expand on its garden rooms and are in the ...
Wildflowers, edibles, and hibiscus-munching tortoise at Teresa Garcia’s garden
May 17, 2024 A colorful patch of native Texas wildflowers greeted me in Teresa Garcia’s garden on the Inside Austin Gardens Tour last weekend. Ka-pow! Like Katie Bird Farm in my last post, Teresa’s garden is large (one acre) with extensive gardens, and located in southwest Austin. Let’s start our ...
A no-fuss, downsized garden that still brings joy
May 14, 2024 I adored Colleen Jamison’s former garden, with its inviting patios, winding paths, charming decor, and custom gates and arbors built by her husband, Bruce. I blogged about that garden 11 years ago, as well as the median of her street that Colleen transformed into a community park ...
Fantastical rockwork and koi pond at Japanese Tea Garden in San Antonio
May 07, 2024 While hunting for faux bois works throughout San Antonio last month, I couldn’t miss the chance to visit the Japanese Tea Garden in Brackenridge Park. I was last there 11 years ago, and I was eager to see its distinctive rock architecture again. A torii gate of ...
A sheep pen turned country garden in Blanco
May 06, 2024 A year ago I received an invitation to visit a unique garden in Blanco, a small town an hour west of Austin in the Texas Hill Country. Because I was working nonstop on my book, I took a rain check until this spring. Recently I drove out ...
“It’s what was here”: A prairie garden grows near downtown Austin
May 01, 2024 You wouldn’t expect to find a huge prairie garden here — the backyard of a private home so close to downtown Austin that blue-glass skyscrapers peek over the treetops. Owner Colin Corgan bought a historic 1880s house in the Travis Heights neighborhood a few years ago and ...
A tradition of faux bois, or trabajo rustico, in San Antonio
April 22, 2024 Faux bois palapa at Landa Library Last week I roadtripped to San Antonio to explore the city’s faux bois tradition, or trabajo rústico as it’s known locally. These functional works of art — mostly garden furniture but also planters, shade structures, bridges, and even bus stops — ...
Lucinda’s purple-heart home and garden
March 20, 2024 Who can resist Lucinda Hutson‘s purple casita with mango trim and festive garden? Not me! When Lucinda invited me over last week for a spring garden visit, I happily said yes. The color-party starts on the alcove-like porch, where grape walls and a deep-rose screen door are ...
