New foundation bed, sedge lawn update, and fall color
September 29, 2017 The front garden by the house has undergone some major changes since we lost a tree last winter. But after some summer angst as formerly shaded foundation shrubs burned up, and some fixes, I’m feeling good about it again. Here’s how it looked before, with the live ...
Strolling into danger — Danger Garden, that is
September 22, 2017 Every three years I manage a trip to Portland, and each time ( and ) I’ve been fortunate to visit the garden of my friend Loree Bohl — fellow spiky plant lover, the prolific blogger of Danger Garden, and a collector-gardener with an incredibly artistic and meticulous ...
Evergreen combos (mostly) for Austin
September 16, 2017 A local reader asked me about evergreen plants that grow well here in central Texas, and as I was putting together today’s Foliage Follow-Up post, I realized it’s a good opportunity to share some of my faves. I use a lot of evergreen plants — though not ...
A narrow side yard lives large in the garden of Rebecca Sams and Buell Steelman
September 08, 2017 I don’t think I planned a family road trip from San Francisco to Portland just to have an opportunity to swing through Eugene, Oregon, to visit the garden of Buell Steelman and Rebecca Sams, the husband-and-wife design-and-build team at Mosaic Gardens, whose work I greatly admire and ...
Datura’s morning glow
August 11, 2017 The datura (Datura wrightii) I planted in the front garden a few years ago has petered out and needs replacing. But this volunteer that self-seeded in the back garden is growing beautifully. Moreover, it asks nothing from me except an occasional pinching back of stems that threaten ...
Datura glowing at twilight
June 06, 2017 After a sunset that turned the sky gold last evening, I took a twilight stroll through the garden*, Ruth Wilcox-style, and stopped to admire several datura blossoms perfuming the air. Still sparkling from an afternoon downpour, the plate-sized, horned blossoms unfurled as the moon rose. Now bring ...
Early summer flowers brighten my Texas garden
May 28, 2017 I didn’t realize how many white flowers I’m growing until I photographed what’s blooming this week. Let’s start with pale pavonia, aka Brazilian rock rose (Pavonia hastata). I love the tissuey white flower with a maroon eye and veins. I grew a moonflower vine (Ipomoea alba), one ...
Three more gardens on Inside Austin Gardens Tour 2017
May 04, 2017 I’ve already posted about two of the gardens on this Saturday’s Inside Austin Gardens Tour, and today I’m showing a sneak peek of three more private gardens on the tour. Garden of Dorothy Thering Gardening on 23 acres in Spicewood, Dorothy Thering has room for a spacious ...
Marvelous maroons for March Foliage Follow-Up
March 16, 2017 One of my favorite spring-blooming shrubs for bright shade features raspberry flowers and maroon leaves. It’s Chinese fringeflower (Loropetalum chinense ‘Sizzling Pink’), and its richly colored foliage contrasts beautifully with blue-green paleleaf yucca (Y. pallida) in a purple pot. Variegated pittosporum ‘Cream de Mint’ adds shade-brightening foliage ...
New flowers opening each day
March 08, 2017 Regular readers know that my shady, dry, deer-infested patch of dirt is not a flowerlicious garden. And yet even I have, oh, at least 6 or 7 flowers in bloom as spring kicks off here in Austin. Like this sweet, nodding Chinese ground orchid (Bletilla striata). I ...
Hello, winter — you’ve zapped my garden
January 16, 2017 Hello, winter! We’re not used to seeing you here in Central Texas. Despite predictions of a mild winter, with the warming influence of a La Niña, we’ve already had two multi-day stretches of hard freezes, with a couple of nights dropping into the upper teens. The result? ...
Drinking up beauty in Chanticleer's Teacup Garden
June 30, 2016 Eight years ago, on a family road trip through Pennsylvania, I visited Chanticleer on a lark (I was planning to see Longwood Gardens but changed my mind at the last minute), and my understanding of what a garden could be changed forever. Not merely because the garden ...
Festival of Flowers in San Antonio this Saturday: I’ll be speaking!
May 23, 2016 Central and south Texas gardening friends, are you going to the Festival of Flowers in San Antonio this Saturday? I am! In fact, I’ll be giving a presentation at 10:30 am 10:45 am about how to make a garden that is both water thrifty and beautiful. With ...
Where there’s a whale, there’s a way
April 29, 2016 Moby, my 10-year-old whale’s tongue agave (A. ovatifolia), which for 22 days has been sending a bloom stalk skyward, seems to be in transition. The stalk is now about 10 or 11 feet tall and holding. Meanwhile, clusters of yellow flowers are emerging along the asparagus-shaped stalk ...
Spring blooms and greens
March 26, 2016 My only Texas bluebonnet (Lupinus texensis) this year is a volunteer that popped up in a decomposed-granite path next to the driveway. I should just seed this whole path with bluebonnets and enjoy the show next year. The live oaks that shade my entire garden recently dropped ...
Lone screech owl and other creature features
March 24, 2016 Every day, through the open window, I hear the thin cries of cedar waxwings as they strafe the back yard, flying from ligustrums to yaupons in the greenbelt behind our house to polish off the late-season berries. With their sleek, tan feathers and robbers’ masks, they are ...
