November 02, 2018
A woodland art collector’s garden on Vashon Island
The Carharts created their 3-acre garden by first planting around the house, which overlooks the Harbor, and then taming the steep slope …
Love letter to Puget Sound Fling, starting with Halstead-Robinson Garden
The charming garden of mosaic artist and topiarist Anita Halstead and her husband, Kelly Robinson, who built many of the garden’s structures …
Evening stroll around the garden
Last week we had a surprise rain shower — what joy! Afterward I walked through the garden, imagining the plants were feeling the joy too …
Light-diffusing Petals and Ellsworth Kelly at Blanton Museum
Light-filtering, tulip-shaped structures called the Petals shade the plaza at the Blanton Museum, home to Ellsworth Kelly’s Austin chapel …
Botanical beauties in Patrick Puckett’s Western Civ. exhibition
Patrick Puckett’s richly colored, botanical-background portraits of women gaze straight out of the frame at the viewer …
Profusion of pink cactus flowers
When the heat is on in a Texas summer, this mammillaria cactus puts on a crown of candy-pink, satin-petaled flowers …
Kehinde Wiley’s floral, haunting Archaeology of Silence
The supersized scale, botanical backdrops, and haunting poses of Kehinde Wiley’s portraits make for a powerful viewing experience …
Indulge an orange crush with Mexican flame vine
Mexican flame vine exploded in fall with pumpkin-orange flowers that drew in bees and butterflies like bears to honey …
Read This: Visionary: Gardens and Landscapes for Our Future
Featuring 80 climate-responsive gardens worldwide, luminously photographed with perspicacious descriptions, Visionary is a masterpiece …
Front-yard gardens and free spirits in Houston’s Heights
During a walk through the Heights neighborhood in north Houston last month, amid the derecho cleanup I saw cheerful cottage gardens in bloom …
Contemporary re-use in landscaping at San Antonio’s Pearl
The old Pearl Brewery in San Antonio is today a shopping/dining complex along the River Walk, with green, landscaped public plazas …
Early summer garden scenes in Austin
What I’m admiring on walks around the neighborhood and in my own garden as the Austin summer heats up. These plants love the heat …
More faux bois at San Antonio River Walk and Witte Museum
Exploring San Antonio’s River Walk, Witte Museum, and the Alamo, looking for faux bois and cocktails along the way …
Drive-By Gardens: Contemporary, lawn-gone front yard
June 12, 2024 I walked by this home in my northwest Austin ‘hood the other day and — bam! — the landscaping stopped me in my tracks. A silver-green planting of whale’s tongue agave, woolly stemodia, and grassy Lindheimer nolina (I think) makes a textural, deer-resistant welcome to this 1970s …
