Art and design intrigue in the garden of Syd Teague
Once a month the Austin garden bloggers gather at one of our gardens to socialize, talk plants and design, and do a plant swap. Last Saturday we met up in Rock Rose/Jenny Stocker’s garden, which despite a recent hailstorm and torrential rains was absolutely beautiful. But we were treated to a two-for-one this time because Jenny had arranged for us to visit her neighbor Syd Teague’s inspiring garden.
Located in the Barton Creek neighborhood just southwest of downtown, Syd’s garden stands out with eclectic, art-filled personality, a diverse plant palette, and a gardener’s garden vibe — the best kind of garden to explore. Syd is well traveled, and her art and decor reflect the places she’s been. Starting at the front porch, a fierce, you-shall-not-pass samurai sculpture guards an Indonesian-style bench with a Western-style leather pillow. No matchy-matchy decor here. It’s delightfully eclectic.
The front door gives you a taste of Morocco, with a filigree hanging lantern and a carved door surround with shutter-like outer doors. The sign on the door says Come In.
Walking around the side of the house, I stopped to admire an imposing, dark-stained gate and color-matched chocolate mimosa (Albizia julibrissin). I had no idea this would grow here.
Stone walls display art of all kinds, like this terracotta face…
…and this laser-cut metal sculpture. And check out the lively pattern of stone blocks in the wall.
Along a soft-terracotta wall, a metal trellis holds potted cacti in terracotta pots.
Like many of us living in Flash Flood Alley (central Texas’s nickname), Syd has had her share of runoff and drainage problems. To handle heavy downpours and water flowing in from uphill neighbors, a generously proportioned dry stream leads around the side of the house and into the back garden.
Stone bridges cross the rocky streambed at various points, and pathways venture into a sunny garden of flowering perennials, roses, canna, native daisies, and more, with agaves and yuccas adding spiky, architecture.
A curving row of ‘Whale’s Tongue’ agave (A. ovatifolia) catches your eye at the edge of an extended gravel wash along the dry stream. Roses and canna add stoplight-red color at left and right, with ‘Peter’s Purple’ bee balm (Monarda fistulosa) in the foreground.
Another view from the back terrace shows how the agaves act as a focal point. Purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) blooms in the foreground amid grassy bicolor iris (Dietes bicolor).
Looking back along the path, I see that Syd likes red as much as I do. A hot combo of coral honeysuckle (Lonicera sempervirens), dwarf crepe myrtle, and barberry catches your eye on the right.
Here’s our group a little ahead of me, with Caroline of The Shovel-Ready Garden giving me a big smile.
Syd, in the turquoise shirt, was clearly leading a great tour that was capturing everyone’s attention. I wish I could have heard everything she was saying, but I was exploring at a snail’s pace. A delighted snail.
Aha — another blogger off on her own, Lori of The Gardener of Good and Evil
Another view of the bicolor iris and agaves
A sago palm in a dark pot makes a focal point…
…that draws you along a path from the back terrace into the garden.
A grilling station shaded by an arbor is on the right. Pines are uncommon in Austin because of our alkaline soil, but this Italian stone pine (Pinus pine) looks happy.
I love this blue-themed cactus planter. Beautiful arrangements like these are placed throughout the garden. This may be a Rick Van Dyke pot.
Syd uses multiples for greater effect, like these twin Queen Victoria agaves in cobalt pots…
…five Talavera frogs climbing a wall…
…and an impressive collection of cactus in terracotta pots topped with M&M-like colorful glass beads.
I like the shadow play of this fan-shaped arbor over a patio tucked between the rear of the house and a privacy-giving stone wall along the property line.
More pretty pots adorn the porch.
A big bunny ears cactus (Opuntia microdasys)
On the far side of the garden, lush perennials give way to a desert garden filled with a spiky assortment of agave, yucca, sotol, and barrel cactus. Jenny mentioned that Syd is from Arizona, and it looks like she’s imported a little bit of Arizona to Austin.
These dry-loving plants are planted on rocky berms for drainage. A wide flagstone path winds its way through the long, sunny garden toward the back of the lot. One of the agaves is flowering dramatically, with a bloom spike about 15 feet tall.
Columnar Argentine saguaro (Trichocereus terscheckii) is not common in Austin, but you see it from time to time. It’s such a striking plant.
Syd knows how to create enticing views no matter what kind of plants she’s growing.
Metal cacti, coyotes, and other desert creatures appear throughout the dry garden. I like how this wavy-leaved prickly pear is leaning on the metal saguaro like an old friend.
Looking back down the path toward the house, I spot Wendy of The Rabid Gardener, our group’s newest member. It was so nice to meet her in person.
This prickly pear is more than 6 feet tall and about 8 feet wide — a big boy!
As you leave the dry garden, there’s one last desert-style container to send you off.
Squid agave, prickly pear, and Agave lophantha — very nice, even with a little speckling on the lophantha’s leaves from the recent hailstorm.
The path leads up into a woodsy shade garden that’s green and serene with shrubs and groundcovers. A flowering yucca leans over the path.
A colorful surprise awaits as you leave the shade garden: an orange and blue fiesta of pots, a frilly bench, and even a birdhouse.
Here’s a fun focal-point idea: a painted stucco-wall backdrop to a pot in a contrasting color. A sago palm or dioon makes an elegant effect in a vase-like cobalt pot, and it really pops against the freestanding orange wall.
Now we’re facing the back of the house, near where we entered the back garden. The dry stream, as you can see, gets very broad here. It must carry a lot of water. I bet it saw some action last week, during the Memorial Day flooding that hit Austin. Crepe myrtles and bicolor iris are planted in a conga line along the streambed.
Another gravel wash sits just upslope from the dry stream. Perhaps it captures water flowing down the hill? Notice that this very large garden contains no lawn — at all. There’s also no swimming pool or other water-intensive feature. Just a beautifully designed garden and smart drainage solutions.
It was a treat to visit Syd’s garden. My thanks to her for giving us a tour, and to Jenny for arranging the visit!
To see Jenny’s post about Syd’s garden last summer, click here.
All material © 2006-2015 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
I really enjoyed your perspective on Syd’s garden and I am glad you enjoyed the visit. I knew you would love the color she has incorporated and all her fine art details as well as the big job of creating a garden which has to deal with tremendous run-off during our heavier storms. I know she has been working on it for quite a while and my goodness she had the perfect plan for dealing with it. I saw the garden in the fall so I have to admire the way she has planted for all seasons. And if something is not in flower, then there are the sculptural cactus to satisfy the eye. Certainly mine. I even noticed some in flower. Syd has a wonderful eye for design and she gives a great tour at the same time. I enjoyed looking back at my tour posting from last year. Thanks for the link. I tried to find it the other day and couldn’t.
Jenny, thank you again for arranging the visit to Syd’s garden — and for a lovely gathering at your own garden, with delicious food and drink, ahead of time! —Pam
I was so sorry I had to miss this part of Saturday’s meeting.
Thank you for sharing.
This looks like an amazing garden.
I’m sorry you had to miss Syd’s garden, Linda, but I’m glad to have had the chance to visit with you at Jenny’s. —Pam
What a great garden, and how lucky that you were able to tour it as a group. I bet your swaps are as much fun as the Portland ones that Peter and I go to. I love the terra cotta pots topped with glass beads that are the same colors as used in most Talavera, that gives me an idea to use to unify my terra cotta and Talavera. Love the shady arbor with the lounge chairs too.
Oh yes, our swaps are always lots of fun. I feel so lucky to be part of the Austin garden blogging community, as I’m sure you do as well in (greater) Portland. —Pam
Magnificent!
I’m glad you enjoyed it, Cheryl. —Pam
And a treat to see her garden through your eyes (and lens). Thank you!
What a fabulous garden! Thanks for the tour. The art and stonework add so much to make it so grand in scope. Using the rock and dry stream beds to control the rain water is a great idea, and the plantings are so enjoyable. Not having grass eliminates a lot of weeds, too.
Hannah, it did have a grand scope, and yet it still retained a comfortable, friendly vibe. Syd is quite a talented gardener and decorator. —Pam
It’s my pleasure, Ricki. —Pam
I thoroughly enjoyed our tour of this garden. I’ve been talking my husband’s ears off describing all the drainage solutions and wonderful design ideas. Very inspiring!
I bet you did have your eye on those dry streams and washes, considering the amount of flooding you had recently, Ally. —Pam
What a fabulous garden. It is garden tour season up here, too, and I am looking forward to lots of inspiration.
Happy touring, Pat! —Pam
Wow, another great garden that you got to tour. This one does look like AZ in some places. Wonderful.
It was a fun mix of lush Austin and dry Tucson, to my eyes. And both areas were done with style. —Pam
Pam, you have really captured the essence of this garden in every respect. Magnificent job of photography and presentation. This garden blew my mind and is the most fantastic garden I have ever visited in the Austin area. What a treat that was to see this, then get to revisit it via your blog.
Thanks, Bob. I’m so glad you enjoyed my post. This garden really was a treat to visit. —Pam
Wow! This is stunning. Your photography captured it wonderfully. Love the glass beads. Dare I ask if you know what kind of barberry that is? I’ve seen three or four kinds at the nursery, but that one is brilliant.
I’m afraid I don’t know the variety, Pam. I love those glass beads too. —Pam
Pam, if you’re still checking back in, Syd reports that the variety is ‘Rose Glow’ or ‘Rosy Glow’. —Pam
Another gorgeous Austin garden, Pam. Thank you for your thoughtful and gorgeous coverage. If I ever need a drought-tolerant garden, and it looks like we’re headed that direction, I’m turning to you and your Texas friends for ideas. Thank you!
I hope you get some rain soon, Tamara. Drought sucks. —Pam
What an enticing garden full of different collections. I LOVE that picture of Lori!!!!!
I could probably make an album of all the garden-tour pictures of Lori I’ve taken over the years. She always has on a cute outfit and hat and tends to wander around on her own, making her a very photographable subject in a garden setting! —Pam
I enjoyed the tour photos both you and Diana provided. What impressed me most was Syd’s masterful use of repetition. I can learn a lot from her example.
Yes, repetition is such an effective design technique, as Syd’s garden illustrates. —Pam
A lot to emulate. A really ambitious and impressive set of gardens and you’ve captured them so beautifully. Happy you had nice weather for this and Jenny’s garden visit both. Austin gardeners are (past) due a few sunny days.
I’ll echo Kris P. – the repetition work done here is striking and super effective. Making a mental note to go around and find spots where “more of the same” will work to advantage.
Deb, the weather that day was “nice,” but what’s nice for most people is usually too hot and too sunny for my taste, at least while touring and photographing. I much prefer cool and cloudy. 🙂
This garden features a great mix of cacti and blooming florals! I love the diversity this has to offer. Thanks for sharing this beautifully intricate garden!
It’s my pleasure, Hailey. —Pam
I just love this garden with all the wonderful color set on a structured backdrop of green and sculptural plants. It’s beautifully done, yet it says a real gardener lives and gardens here.
Exactly, Shirley. Syd’s personality shines through, even in such a large garden. —Pam
Your photographs caught so much that I missed! These are gorgeous pictures, I’m so glad I get a do-over via this post!
It was so fun to tour the garden with you, Wendy! —Pam
Thank you so much for coming to see my garden. What a gorgeous job of photography – you really captured the essence of the ecletic design. I am a plant lover who just enjoys seeing how things grow. You were correct that it is a dioon – most people don’t notice. The barberry is rose glow or rosey glow. It is so bright red now because it is putting out new growth. What I like the most about the garden is that in a month it will look so different as the pride of barbados, esperanza, crepe myrtle, perennial hibiscus and rudbeckia hirta come into full bloom. Ya’ll have to come back.
Syd, I’m honored you stopped by. Thanks for sharing the plant IDs, and especially for sharing your beautiful garden with us in person! —Pam