Fearless Gardening book launch and GIVEAWAY
January 08, 2021 Midwinter is a great time to take stock of your garden and mull over what you want it to be, how you want it to evolve, and — let’s be honest — how you want it to freaking WOW you every time you step into it. Maybe ...
Leaving a garden and starting over: Uprooted by Page Dickey
December 02, 2020 I left my last garden 12 years ago with little regret, despite my love for that sunny cottage garden. Instead I looked forward to starting a new, larger garden in completely different conditions: from sun to shade, from deep clay soil to thinner soil over limestone, from ...
Read This: Windcliff by Daniel Hinkley
September 16, 2020 “There is no magic or revelation,” world-renowned plantsman Dan Hinkley modestly declares in the preface of his book Windcliff: A Story of People, Plants, and Gardens (Timber Press, 2020), just “my attempt to convey my thoughts on good gardening as applied to my own climate and surroundings.” ...
Read This: Spirit of Place
July 30, 2020 The Garden Conservancy preserves significant American gardens and shares all manner of interesting gardens with the public via its beloved Open Days program, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year despite the Covid-cancellation of all tours. I’m a big fan of their work, particularly because their outreach ...
Read This: The Earth in Her Hands
May 05, 2020 Women’s contributions have been long overlooked in the gardening world, particularly at recognized levels of design and horticulture. So too with the contributions of women of color and those whose work doesn’t cater to the 1% (or even 10%) whose gardens have traditionally filled the pages of ...
Read This: The Pollinator Victory Garden
April 22, 2020 Today is Earth Day, a reminder to do all we can to help Mother Nature and make a positive difference for the health of our planet. May I suggest a goal of making your yard or garden (or balcony or patio!) more attractive to pollinators? Gardening to ...
Read This: Private Gardens of Santa Barbara: The Art of Outdoor Living
March 09, 2020 Stuck at home fretting about coronavirus? Luckily we gardeners have our gardens to occupy us, soothe our minds, and even feed us during times like these. But reading about beautiful gardens and learning design from a master is also a great way to while away the hours, ...
Read This: The Gardens of Japan
March 03, 2020 As Tokyo’s cherry blossom season approaches, it’s the perfect time to read a book about Japanese gardens: The Gardens of Japan by Helena Attlee, with photographs by her husband, Alex Ramsay, published by Frances Lincoln in 2017 (a paperback version of a hardback originally published in 2010) ...
Read This: Dreamscapes by Claire Takacs
December 10, 2019 Claire Takacs has my dream job: she travels the world to photograph gardens. The Australian garden photographer known for her moody yet incandescent images of sunlight stretching long fingers over treetops and through stained-glass flowers and foliage published her first solo book last year, Dreamscapes: Inspiration and ...
Deer-Resistant Design book features my garden, other Austin gardens!
July 19, 2019 In October of 2017, Seattle-area designer, author, and speaker Karen Chapman came to Austin to present for my Garden Spark series and to photograph gardens for a new book she was working on. That book has just been published: Deer-Resistant Design: Fence-Free Gardens that Thrive Despite the ...
Read This: Gardentopia
June 12, 2019 Many would-be gardeners, and even gardeners with plenty of experience, feel overwhelmed by the idea of making a design for their yard. Those with a passion for collecting plants may find themselves especially puzzled by how to bring their garden together cohesively and creatively. If this describes ...
Read This: Wildflowers of Texas
February 20, 2019 An advance guard of bluebonnets scattered across the grassy shoulder of MoPac at Bee Cave Road augurs blue battalions soon to arrive. When they do, green roadsides will surrender and turn sky-blue, touching off the annual frenzy of bluebonnet peeping and photo ops. Parents will crouch before ...
Book Review: Dry Gardens: High Style for Low Water Gardens
November 03, 2018 Not so long ago, a book about dry gardens in the U.S. would have featured cactus and rocks. Dry stuff indeed, except for the cactus aficionado. Over the past couple of decades, as drought and water shortages have led to a growing acceptance that thirsty lawns and ...
Classic and older garden books worth seeking out
October 16, 2018 When I started this blog waaaaay back in 2006, I wrote a handful of short reviews for my new Book Reviews page, pulling from my then-favorite collection of plant guides, design books, memoirs, garden-related fiction, and even poetry. Since then I’ve reviewed nearly 100 more gardening or ...
Read This: Desert Gardens of Steve Martino
October 12, 2018 Weeds and walls. That’s how Phoenix landscape architect and native son Steve Martino describes his life’s work of designing gardens in the Arizona desert. Steve has a knack for simplifying the language of design and explaining how his own designs work. “Weeds” is his shorthand for native ...
Read This: Hot Color, Dry Garden can help you design your waterwise garden
August 26, 2018 Homeowners who want a waterwise garden, particularly if they live in the U.S. Southwest, often feel that their options are limited to cactus and gravel — a “zero-scape,” as it’s commonly called. If instead you’d like to have a true xeriscape (pronounced zeer-escape), a garden that doesn’t ...
