Cold-hardy cactus and more at plantsman Kelly Grummons’s garden
November 12, 2024 While in Denver this fall, I found Colorado gardeners to be warm and generous about sharing their creations and eager to make introductions to other gardeners they admire. That’s how I came to meet plantsman Kelly Grummons, co-owner of specialty nursery Prairie Storm Nursery. How, exactly? After ...
After the corn maze at Chatfield Farms
October 26, 2024 A cornfield maze tempted us, right after arriving in Colorado, to trek out to Chatfield Farms, a native plant refuge and working farm that’s part of Denver Botanic Gardens. It was the end of September, and fall was in the air. After the corn maze (fun for ...
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 ...
Summer-turning-to-fall garden
September 28, 2024 Summer still holds sway in Austin, but the light is mellower. The garden is turning toward fall. Bumblebees are feverishly collecting pollen from the volunteer mulleins that seeded into the gravel patio. In back, plumbago is the only thing in full bloom. It took me years to ...
More exuberance at the Sparler-Schouten Garden, part 2
September 01, 2024 There was too much garden goodness and exuberance to contain in one post about Daniel Sparler and Jeff Schouten’s Garden of Exuberant Refuge, which I visited on the Puget Sound Fling. Here’s Part 1, if you missed it. Today, Part 2 starts on the back patio of ...
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 ...
A plant playground at the Risdahl-Pittman Garden
August 08, 2024 Susan and Guy Risdahl-Pittman described their Milton, Washington, garden at the Puget Sound Fling last month as an eclectic plant playground. It’s also a beautifully designed space with winding paths to explore and a naturalistic pond to enjoy, complete with birch log lying across it. I started ...
Amid the trees at Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden and Pacific Bonsai Museum
August 06, 2024 The Puget Sound Fling last month started its second full day of touring in a forest of towering trees. Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden At the Rhododendron Species Botanical Garden in Federal Way, Washington, I sought out the Victorian Stumpery, “the world’s largest public stumpery, with ferns spilling ...
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 ...
Indulge an orange crush with Mexican flame vine
June 28, 2024 Last year I planted Mexican flame vine (Senecio confusus) at the base of the deck and impatiently waited all summer for it to do anything. And then, oh my gosh, it exploded in fall with pumpkin-orange flowers that drew in bees and butterflies like bears to honey ...
Early summer garden scenes in Austin
June 17, 2024 On my walks around the neighborhood, I’m admiring Pride of Barbados (Caesalpinia pulcherrima), the star of Austin’s summer gardens. It’s so beautiful, both leaves and flowers. For whatever reason, I haven’t been able to get it established in my own garden, darn it. It loves heat and ...
Michael’s Plano Prairie Garden in spring
June 03, 2024 I’ve visited Michael McDowell’s garden — aka the Plano Prairie Garden — several times over the past decade (see here and here; it’ll also be featured in my forthcoming book). My visits have always been in the fall, when purple spires of gayfeather turn Michael’s prairie garden ...
Eye-candy containers at Vivero nursery
May 29, 2024 At Vivero Growers nursery in southwest Austin, big containers are planted as eye-catching showpieces. I oohed and aahed over them, including this one with hot-pink ice plant and a giant hesperaloe, during a recent visit. Sizzling pink ice plant flowers Check this one out: a potted Mexican ...
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 ...
