Modern country charm, vintage signs at Katie Bird Farm
May 15, 2024 Chickens and donkeys and ducks, oh my! Katie Bird Farm has it all, plus gardens galore and a modern farmhouse and swimming pool on 3 acres in southwest Austin — all of it decorated with vintage signs and repurposed farm equipment. Owners Julie Nelson and Kay Angermann ...
Homegrown flowers at Arnosky Family Farm
May 10, 2024 Eight years ago, I dined in this big blue barn in Blanco at a magical American Grown Field to Vase Dinner Tour. Hosted by Arnosky Family Farm, a mom-and-pop-owned flower farm, the event has lived large in my memory ever since. I returned a couple of weeks ...
Wildflowers and miniature donkeys near Independence
March 25, 2024 A couple weeks ago, I went on wildflower safari south of Austin, east of San Antonio, and saw some good flower fields. But this above-average wildflower year called for a second safari. On Friday, my husband and I hit the back roads east of Austin, near tiny ...
An extravaganza of bluebonnets and other Texas wildflowers
March 15, 2024 Texas bluebonnets are coloring fields and roadsides a month early this year, and they’re already at peak in certain areas. I follow Facebook page Texas Wildflower Report each spring to learn where good fields have been spotted. And so when I found myself with a free afternoon ...
Fields awash in Texas bluebonnets and other wildflowers
March 25, 2023 Galvanized by swaths of bluebonnets (Lupinus texensis) coloring Austin’s urban roadsides, I drove east on Thursday morning to wander the dirt roads of Industry, a town of around 273 people. There I found farmsteads in rolling fields of denim blue. The bluebonnets are showing off this spring, ...
Gardens galore at Paxson Hill Farm, part 1
February 09, 2022 Paxson Hill Farm’s crossroads, where inviting paths branch in every direction A friend asked me how I find gardens to see when traveling. Aside from online research a lot comes down to asking gardeners who live in the area. And it pays to build in time for ...
At Juniper Hill Farm, a country garden gets structure from formal design
November 23, 2021 Connections to gardeners I’ve made as a writer often lead, like beads on a string, to new introductions and far-flung garden visits. In such a roundabout way I had the pleasure last month of meeting photographer Joe Valentine and his wife, Paula, for a personal tour of ...
At Bedrock Gardens, the land is an artist’s canvas, part 2
November 19, 2021 During our early October road trip through New Hampshire, we made time for a return visit to Bedrock Gardens in Lee, New Hampshire. This is part 2 of my exploration of the 20-acre garden of artist-gardener Jill Nooney and her “problem-solver” husband, Bob Munger. Click here to ...
Tour of P. Allen Smith’s home, vegetable garden, and rose garden at Moss Mountain Farm
July 09, 2021 Last month, on a garden-visiting road trip with my mom, I bought tickets for a farm lunch and tour at P. Allen Smith‘s Moss Mountain Farm, about 40 minutes north of Little Rock, Arkansas. Smith is a nationally known TV personality and garden designer, and the half-day ...
Tour of P. Allen Smith’s Moss Mountain Farm: Terrace Garden and Sister Oak
July 07, 2021 After St. Louis, Mom and I headed back to Texas via Little Rock, Arkansas. On the morning of June 17th, we wound our way into the hills northwest of the city and joined 80 others with a reservation for lunch and a tour of Moss Mountain Farm, ...
Bluebonnet safari in Round Top and Brenham
April 16, 2021 I kept hearing that bluebonnets were a bit of a no-show in Central Texas this year due to a dry fall and winter, not because of the February freeze. Friends who’d gone west into the Hill Country looking for denim-blue fields came back disappointed, and my own ...
Texas wildflowers in Easter egg colors
April 04, 2021 Happy Easter to all who celebrate! In lieu of bunnies or lilies, allow me to regale you with Easter egg-colored wildflowers from a recent drive southeast of San Antonio, about 2 hours south of Austin. While this isn’t a banner year for Texas wildflowers — perhaps due ...
Sunny southern France vacation, part 2
August 22, 2019 Dodging the heat waves that plagued France this summer, my husband and I day-tripped through Provence for 5 days in late July after meeting up with our daughter following her study abroad program (she did not manage to dodge the heat waves). In my last post I ...
Provence lavender fields and rosy Roussillon
August 14, 2019 Summer in Provence — what do you think of? Fields of lavender and sunflowers, sun-washed hill towns, buzzing cicadas, hot days and cool nights, a glass of wine at a small table along a cobblestone street? Yes, yes, and yes. Years after falling for the region’s rugged ...
Line dancing and Stickwork sculpture at Chatfield Farms: Denver Garden Bloggers Fling
July 23, 2019 The Denver Garden Bloggers Fling (June 2019) wrapped up, after 3-1/2 days of touring Denver-area gardens, at Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms. Chatfield Farms, a 700-acre native plant refuge and working farm in Littleton, has a number of interesting gardens, including a prairie garden designed by Lauren ...
Wildflower superbloom south of San Antonio
March 23, 2019 Is Texas experiencing a superbloom of wildflowers this spring? It’s certainly the best display I’ve seen since the epic flowering of 2010. Following a mild and wetter than normal winter, bluebonnets have burst into bloom several weeks early, turning roadsides and fields azure. Indian paintbrush have joined ...
