For 11 years I’ve traveled to cities around North America to attend Garden Bloggers Fling, and I’ve helped organize two Flings held in Austin — in 2008 and again last weekend.

Normally I take hundreds of pictures of the gardens I visit. (Go to Categories in my sidebar and click on each city’s Fling link for my garden-tour recaps.) But this year, as a planner and cat-herder, I didn’t. I carried only my cell phone and snapped mainly people pictures to document the experience, which proved to be an entirely different and equally fun way to experience the event. The whole point of the Fling, after all, is to explore gardens in the company of other bloggers — fellow documenters of life in the garden.

Here are my favorite people pics — and a few garden pics — from Austin Fling 2018.

DAY 1 – May 3

Check-In

Fresh-faced and ready to kick things off, the Austin Fling team (minus Jennifer Brown) at the check-in table: Laura Wills of Wills Family Acres, me, Diana Kirby of Sharing Nature’s Garden, and Sheryl Williams of Yard Fanatic.

Reuniting with old friends is one of the joys of the Fling: Layanee of Ledge & Gardens and Cindy of My Corner of Katy.

Leslie of Growing a Garden in Davis and Carol of May Dreams Gardens with their swag bags.

Opening Reception at Central Library

After check-in, we streamed out of the hotel and paraded down Congress Ave. and Cesar Chavez — stopping traffic at times — to Central Library, where we enjoyed a fajita dinner in the downstairs event room.

After dinner, we explored the library’s native-plant landscaping along Shoal Creek and took over the rooftop garden.

Angie of Angie the Freckled Rose and her beautiful floral dress.

Debating plant IDs were these West Coasters plus one New Mexican: Kris of Late to the Garden Party, David of It’s a Dry Heat, Gerhard of Succulents and More, Loree of Danger Garden, and Denise of A Growing Obsession.

Other bloggers grabbed seats with a view of Congress Avenue Bridge and waited to see if the bats would stream out at sunset: Leslie, Layanee, Pat of Commonweeder, and Ann of Amateur Bot-ann-ist.

Afterward, back in my hotel room and celebrating a successful start to the Fling, my co-planners and I demurely enjoyed tequila shots, which we’d supplied, in celebration of Cinco de Mayo, in the bloggers’ swag bags: Sheryl, Jennifer of Victory or Death!…in the Garden, Diana, and Laura.

DAY 2 – May 4

Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center

The first full day of the Fling began at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center, where we had our group photo taken (by Jeff Genung) just before a torrential thunderstorm let loose, forcing even the most eager bloggers back to the gift store, where we drowned our sorrows by shopping. (Not a bad way to drown sorrows, by the way, and better than drowning in the garden.)

And hey! I was happy to see my book Lawn Gone! for sale in the store.

Diana Kirby Garden

It was still pouring, although the thunder and lightning had abated, when we arrived at Diana Kirby’s garden. Thanks to the ponchos provided in the swag bags, the bloggers were able to venture briefly into the garden, but mostly we huddled on porches and indoors, dripping on Diana’s concrete flooring and yakking over brownies and clementines.

The Natural Gardener

We were still poncho-clad when we got to The Natural Gardener for lunch. Over boxed lunches in the big tent, we listened to owner John Dromgoole talk about his mission to promote organic gardening, and then we shopped and explored the beautiful display gardens.

In front of a mural of a Hill Country landscape (with a roadrunner and dinosaurs), Wendy of High Country Gardens and Jenny of American Meadows posed in their ponchos.

Jenny Stocker Garden

Next we saw two private gardens, and thankfully the rain had begun to let up. At Jenny Stocker’s garden, wildflowers sparkled with raindrops, and the potager’s raised beds attracted these bloggers.

Mirador Garden

At the contemporary, native-planted Mirador Garden, bloggers in their jewel-toned ponchos reminded me of the three good fairies in Disney’s Sleeping Beauty movie.

DAY 3 – May 5

My Garden

The sun came out for the rest of the weekend, and the bloggers arrived at my own garden on Saturday morning. Breakfast tacos from Tacodeli gave everyone a taste of Austin’s iconic cuisine, and I spotted Jim Peterson, publisher of Garden Design magazine, enjoying his in the front garden. Notice how his shirt perfectly matches my color scheme.

Colleen Jamison Garden

I had to miss seeing Colleen Jamison’s garden because I was greeting bloggers in my own (we split up our two buses). But I hear it was a hit, and the bloggers were especially interested in her guerrilla-gardened median strip.

B. Jane Garden

At B. Jane’s garden, I spotted Jenny of Rock Rose and Layanee deep in conversation.

Shawn of Ravenscourt Gardens, Mary Beth of A Growing Curiosity, and Caroline of The Shovel-Ready Garden pose at the gate.

Donna & Mike Fowler Garden

We ate lunch in the garden of Donna and Mike Fowler in nearby Hutto, finding tables and seats in their many garden rooms.

Afterward we explored the garden. I was struck by the chartreuse green of new bald cypress foliage.

Laurin of Ravenscourt Gardens posed for me in front of a piece of antlered art, giving herself humorous headgear in the process.

Tanglewild Gardens

The jungly-looking palm fronds on Loree’s shirt were well suited to tropical-looking Tanglewild Gardens, the home-garden creation of Skottie O’Mahony and Jeff Breitenstein.

Lori of The Gardener of Good and Evil and Grace of Fashion Plants join Loree for the photo op.

A glimpse of the pool garden through a Moorish window grille.

First-time Flinger Noelle of Ramblings from a Desert Garden taking it all in from the deep porch.

As Flingers are wont to do on a warm day, some sat on the edge of the pool and cooled their heels while enjoying the sunshine.

Gail of Piece of Eden looks happy on a tiki-style curved sofa.

Banquet Dinner

That evening we had a banquet dinner at the hotel. Jennifer and Gerhard showed up in matching cactus shirts.

At dinner, sponsor Jim Peterson of Garden Design said a few words about the magazine that he and editor Thad Orr have reimagined as an ad-free, subscriber-supported quarterly bookazine, as well as a content-packed website.

And then we gave out some silly hats to bloggers as prizes for longest-published blog, newest blog, most Flings attended, etc. Here’s Darcy of eGardenGo modeling hers.

And Dee of Red Dirt Ramblings showing off hers.

After dinner we announced that, in honor of Cinco de Mayo, it was piñata time! Enthusiastic bloggers began conspicuously warming up, including Margaret of The Gardening Me, Anneliese of CobraHead, and Carol of May Dreams Gardens.

Tonya of Plant + Shoot looks on as Anneliese gamely gets warmed up.

Carol was blindfolded…

…and then it was time to swing! As Carol swung blindly for the smiling pepper, Diana mischievously pulled it out of reach.

A piñata definitely livened up the room!

Other bloggers had a turn, and then Anneliese was at bat. A solid hit! But it would still take a few more bloggers whacking on it before the pepper was popped and candy, plastic rings, and toy bugs spilled out.

DAY 4 – May 6

Margie McClurg Garden

The next morning we visited Margie McClurg’s garden, where her landscape architect, Jackson Broussard, was on hand to discuss the design.

Grace amid sunbeams, shooting a poppy.

Its papery petals were illuminated by the morning sun.

Lucinda Hutson Garden

We knew Lucinda Hutson’s purple casita and Mexican-influenced cottage garden would be unlike anything the bloggers might have seen elsewhere, and it was.

Lucinda is one of a kind too.

Boot bouquet on her patio table

Kim of Cooper Young Garden Walk Blog soaking up the festive colors.

Ruthie Burrus Garden

At Ruthie Burrus’s hilltop garden, the bloggers were treated not only to her lovely gardens but invited into her husband’s “man tower” for a 360 view of downtown and the surrounding hills. Ruthie is seen here greeting bloggers Kelly of Floradora and David of It’s a Dry Heat.

Zilker Botanical Garden

We had lunch indoors at Zilker Botanical Garden, where High Country Gardens founder David Salman spoke to us about plant introductions for dry-climate gardens.

I was thrilled to see both of my books for sale at the garden’s gift shop.

After lunch docents offered guided tours of the Japanese Garden and the Hartman Prehistoric Garden. Amid the palms of the prehistoric garden, a quinceañera photo session was happening, and I enjoyed the juxtaposition of the girl’s princess-like attire with the dinosaur sculpture behind her.

Tait Moring Garden

We visited Tait Moring’s garden next, where bloggers went gaga over his moonlike stone orbs in a colorful meadow of blanketflower.

Kirk Walden Garden

I regretfully missed the last garden of the tour, Kirk Walden’s garden overlooking Lake Austin, because my co-planners and I had to get things set up at our final venue. But we knew the bloggers would enjoy the garden as much as the view and could relax and just take it all in.

BBQ Bash at Articulture

After the tours, hot and tired bloggers arrived at our final event: a BBQ Bash with live music in the beautiful back-yard event space at Articulture in South Austin.

We already knew this place was amazing, but owner/artist Monique Capanelli, her husband and media director Dante Dominick, and their staff went all out with the set-up and decorations to make it garden-dreamy, fun, and flat-out wonderful. I wish I’d gotten pics of the tables with their macramé and tie-died runners, but I did at least think to snap a photo of one of the sweet wildflower bouquets adorning the tables.

Lucinda Hutson, Austin’s high priestess of tequila, joined us there to sign copies of her book ¡Viva Tequila! We’d arranged for the bar to serve two tequila cocktails from her book, the paloma and the Mexican martini, both of which proved way more popular than the wine we also offered. We were a tequila-drinking crowd!

Our fun-loving bus captains, Sheryl and Jennifer

We’d hired mandolin maestro Paul Glasse and the Paul Glasse Quartet to play, and they were wonderful. I first heard Paul at a Field-to-Vase Dinner Tour in Blanco, and I was delighted to have him bring his artistry to our event.

Here I am with Janet of The Queen of Seaford, looking pretty happy with how the Fling turned out — and with my cowboy hat on, because Austin.

I was soaking up the love.

And the music. And the incredible succulent, moss, and tillandsia pictures, planters and accessories, and gifts in Articulture’s artful boutique, where the bloggers enjoyed a final shopping spree.

We dug into PoK-e-Jo’s BBQ, and Monique said a few words of welcome, and then we just talked and enjoyed the music and being outside on a gorgeous spring evening in Austin.

Most of the Texas bloggers (20 attended in all) were rounded up for a group photo (from left to right): Shirley of Rock-Oak-Deer, Andrea of Transplant Studio, Sheryl of Yard Fanatic, Vicki of Playin’ Outside, Lori of The Gardener of Good and Evil, me (Pam of Digging), Diana of Sharing Nature’s Garden, Jenny Nybro Peterson, Caroline of The Shovel-Ready Garden, Jennifer of Victory or Death!…in the Garden, Jenny of Rock Rose, and Cat of The Whimsical Gardener.

At the end of the evening, we said a fond farewell to all the bloggers, and Diana, Laura, and I were a bit wistful knowing that Austin Fling was over and done. What an amazing experience it has been for the past two years, planning this event with these incredible women. I’m thrilled with how it all turned out and hope everyone who came had as much fun as I did.

Next year it’ll be our turn to relax and just enjoy the event! My fellow bloggers, I’ll see you at Denver Fling!

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