Floral bling at West Elm & the garden gate

Floral bling at West Elm & the garden gate

January 13, 2012 Sharing a little floral beauty I saw around town yesterday…This is a make-your-own-terrarium display I spotted at West Elm. I swear, it looked like a nursery when I walked in the door, with dozens of potted cacti and succulents and tiny tillandsias for sale along with glass ...
Read This: Handmade Garden Projects

Read This: Handmade Garden Projects

January 11, 2012 “A collection of plants, however choice and brilliantly well-tended, doesn’t become a real garden until it takes on the character and personality of the gardener behind it. The best gardens—those we fall into for hours, appearing new with every visit—are ones in which the owners are telling ...
Cinderblock wall succulent planter still going strong

Cinderblock wall succulent planter still going strong

December 01, 2011 When I stacked and planted it in early March, I expected to get about 8 months of color and interest out of my cinderblock wall planter filled with succulents, and I have! All through our raging summer it held up really well with minimal water, even when ...
Rockin' Demonstration Gardens at the Wildflower Center

Rockin’ Demonstration Gardens at the Wildflower Center

November 27, 2011 Friday’s blue skies enticed me outdoors and down to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for a stroll. For yesterday’s post about the entry courtyard, woodland garden, and Hill Country Stream, click here. A limestone wall separates the woodland garden from the sun-drenched demonstration garden, which opens ...
Rockin' Demonstration Gardens at the Wildflower Center

Rockin' Demonstration Gardens at the Wildflower Center

November 27, 2011 Friday’s blue skies enticed me outdoors and down to the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for a stroll. For yesterday’s post about the entry courtyard, woodland garden, and Hill Country Stream, click here. A limestone wall separates the woodland garden from the sun-drenched demonstration garden, which opens ...
Visit to Big Red Sun's reopened boutique nursery in Austin

Visit to Big Red Sun’s reopened boutique nursery in Austin

November 10, 2011 Like a go-go dancer at a small-town prom, Big Red Sun‘s theatrical streetside display garden stood out from the crowd of surrounding businesses at its original location on E. Cesar Chavez. Its gift shop—jammed with garden books, hip furniture, clothes, jewelry, and home decor—was as enticing as ...
Edible wall! Cinderblock wall vegetable garden wows at Big Red Sun

Edible wall! Cinderblock wall vegetable garden wows at Big Red Sun

November 08, 2011 The cinderblock wall planter idea just keeps getting bigger and better. At Big Red Sun‘s recently reopened boutique nursery in east Austin, I spotted this edible wall planted in artistically stacked concrete blocks—a riff, perhaps, on the succulent wall at Potted that inspired my own succulent wall? ...
Jenny Stocker's English Texas gravel garden

Jenny Stocker’s English Texas gravel garden

November 03, 2011 My friend Jenny Stocker, who blogs at Rock Rose, has shared her garden with me many times over the years. Each time I am struck anew by the beauty of her English-style xeric Texas garden, which shows many native plants to advantage in gravel-mulched, walled courtyards surrounding ...
Fairy tale Halloween at Dallas Arboretum pumpkin patch

Fairy tale Halloween at Dallas Arboretum pumpkin patch

October 31, 2011 Happy Halloween! How do you like these warty, spooky, gray pumpkins? These and many, many more are on display now through November 23 at the Dallas Arboretum’s Autumn Festival, a fantasyland of pumpkins and pumpkin houses that attracts hordes of camera-snapping moms and dads and costumed tots ...
The garden loves late October, and so do I

The garden loves late October, and so do I

October 30, 2011 Is April the best month in the garden? May? No, surely it’s October, when the Death Star shifts its beam to the Southern Hemisphere, nights offer cool relief, and we even get an occasional rain shower. The garden, released from its summer thrall, responds with elation, bursting ...
Support Your Independent Nursery Month & Giveaway -- last day to enter!

Support Your Independent Nursery Month & Giveaway — last day to enter!

October 26, 2011 It’s Support Your Independent Nursery Month! Each Wednesday in October I’ve posted about one of my favorite independent garden centers in the Austin area, including Barton Springs Nursery (where I photographed the chalkboard pictured above!), The Natural Gardener, and The Great Outdoors. Today I’m shining a spotlight ...
Support Your Independent Nursery Month: The Great Outdoors

Support Your Independent Nursery Month: The Great Outdoors

October 19, 2011It’s Support Your Independent Nursery month! Each Wednesday in October I’m posting about one of my favorite independent garden centers in the Austin area. Today I’m shining a spotlight on The Great Outdoors, located just south of the hip strip known as SoCo on South Congress Avenue. (This ...
Support Your Independent Nursery Month: The Natural Gardener

Support Your Independent Nursery Month: The Natural Gardener

October 12, 2011 It’s Support Your Independent Nursery month! Each Wednesday in October I’m posting about one of my favorite independent garden centers in the Austin area. Today I’m shining a spotlight on The Natural Gardener, located at 8648 Old Bee Cave Road, just past the “Y” in Oak Hill ...
Getting the blues in the garden

Getting the blues in the garden

October 08, 2011 A few more long views of the garden reveal just how blue and silver all my accessories are. I used to lean more to browns, golds, and rust, but perhaps I’m trying to visually cool things down these days. I even have a lot of blue and ...
Support Your Independent Nursery Month: Barton Springs Nursery

Support Your Independent Nursery Month: Barton Springs Nursery

October 05, 2011 It’s Support Your Independent Nursery month! Each Wednesday in October I’m posting about one of my favorite independent garden centers in the Austin area. Today I’m shining a spotlight on Barton Springs Nursery, located on Bee Caves Road between MoPac and Highway 360. BSN is a great ...
Read This: Concrete Garden Projects

Read This: Concrete Garden Projects

September 24, 2011 Are you looking for a fun garden project this fall? A way to add clean-lined flair to your garden? I have just the book recommendation for you. Concrete Garden Projects: Easy & Inexpensive Containers, Furniture, Water Features & More by Camilla Arvidsson and Malin Nilsson is a ...