cool gardens in a hot climate™
October 04, 2017 The first wave of migrating monarch butterflies has reached North Texas and will be fluttering through Austin and other parts of Central Texas by next week. Despite their seeming fragility, these tenacious creatures migrate each fall as … Read More
September 24, 2017 Sopping up a plateful of sausage gravy with fluffy, fist-sized biscuits at a picnic table outside of Pine State Biscuits, I glimpsed an open gate and profusion of plants just a dozen yards away, tucked behind a … Read More
September 20, 2017 All you succulent junkies, listen up. If you love succulents or want to learn how to grow them, two newly released books by succulent-gardening trailblazers Debra Lee Baldwin and Robin Stockwell need to be at the top … Read More
July 17, 2017 When I launched the Garden Spark talk series six months ago, I was sure there was an unmet need in Austin for people who wanted to hear top-notch designers and authors speak about garden design. So far … Read More
June 28, 2017 Digging has been a little quiet for the past week because I was away at the Capital Region Garden Bloggers Fling, touring public and private gardens in Washington, D.C., Maryland, and northern Virginia. But on the home … Read More
June 16, 2017 Today is Foliage Follow-Up, my monthly meme that encourages us to focus on often-underappreciated foliage plants, rather than spotlight-hogging flowers. That means it’s the perfect day to review a new book by two foliage-loving design experts, Karen … Read More
May 15, 2017 A raft of gardening books has piled up on my desk this spring. I’m tempted to lash the whole stack into a raft and paddle to a deserted island, where I’ll have time to read them all … Read More
April 27, 2017 After Moby, my beloved whale’s tongue agave (pictured here at his 10th birthday party — yes, really), bloomed and died last fall, I harvested and potted up more than 100 bulbils from its bloom stalk. I watched … Read More
April 24, 2017 I’ve known many people who are afraid to plant any kind of bamboo, even a clumping type, for fear it will take over their yard — and with good reason. Here in Austin, many a back yard … Read More
April 08, 2017 Seven years after the shuttering of Gardens, a boutique nursery and home-and-garden shop on W. 35th Street, Central Austin has a new contender for the high-end gardening market: Thompson+Hanson, an Austin branch of the longtime T+H in … Read More
March 20, 2017 Hello! As I turned to page 107 while reading the current issue of Country Gardens (Spring 2017), I saw a screenshot of my blog. What’s this? It turns out Digging is one of Tucson garden designer and … Read More
February 17, 2017 Last weekend, after creatively wrestling this bad boy out of the car, my family helpers and I slid it onto a utility cart and rolled it into the back yard. This new whale’s tongue agave to replace … Read More
February 14, 2017 Valentine’s Day, specifically February 14, 2006, marks the day I published my very first blog post here at Digging. Eleven years later I’m still at it, and it’s all thanks to you! Chinese ground orchid (Bletilla striata) … Read More
February 13, 2017 After screech owls, hummingbirds are my favorite garden visitors. Zipping around in jewel-toned splendor, these tiny birds with pugnacious personalities are a joy to watch. One of my favorite gardening moments occurred when I was watering some … Read More